The main opposition CPN-UML has demanded the impeachment proposal against Chief Justice (CJ) Cholendra Shumsher Rana be sent to the impeachment recommendation committee of the House of Representatives (HoR).
Speaker Agni Sapkota has yet to submit the impeachment proposal to the impeachment recommendation committee despite UML ending House obstruction.
UML has demanded that the impeachment process be moved forward in the business advisory committee, according to UML’s Whip Shanta Chaudhary. “Speaker Sapkota only nodded his head but did not answer,” Chaudhary told Setopati.
Speaker Sapkota had formed an 11-strong impeachment recommendation committee on March 6. The committee includes four CPN-UML lawmakers Bishnu Paudel, Lal Babu Pandit, Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe, and Krishna Bhakta Pokharel; Min Bahadur Bishwakarma and Ram Bahadur Bista from Nepali Congress; Yashoda Subedi and Rekha Bista from CPN (Maoist Center); Kalyani Khadka from CPN (Unified Socialist); Ekbal Miya of Loktantrik Samajwadi Party (LSP); and Pramod Sah from Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP).
Dev Gurung, who had proposed the impeachment motion, had presented the impeachment proposal for discussion in the House on March 13. Speaker Sapkota had scheduled the discussion for March 16 but the government ended the House session before March 16.
The impeachment proposal has yet to be sent to the impeachment recommendation committee as required by the HoR regulations. The issue has to be concluded within three months of the impeachment proposal reaching the recommendation committee.
The House has yet to hold discussion on the impeachment proposal even during the ongoing budget session.
The ruling coalition has adopted the strategy of stretching the impeachment process until Rana retires in November. But UML is putting pressure on the government to move the process forward.
