The House of Representatives (HoR) regulation has been passed paving the way for formation of House committees.
The process for passing the HoR regulation was stalled after ruling lawmakers registered amendment proposals requiring House proceedings to be carried out as per the decision of business advisory committee.
House businesses including formation of House committees to conducting parliamentary hearings were affected as the regulation for operation of the House was not been passed by the HoR.
Draft for the regulation was unanimously passed by the regulation drafting committee of the HoR on January 18. CPN-UML was in the then ruling coalition that made CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal the prime minister on December 25, 2022 at that time and UML’s candidate Ghimire was elected speaker as per the agreement reached between UML and Moist Center the next day.
But the then ruling coalition unraveled after Nepali Congress (NC), Maoist Center, CPN (Unified Socialist) and Janata Samajwadi Party (JSP) decided to revive the pre-election coalition ahead of the presidential election scheduled on March 9.
UML then quit the government and is now the main opposition party while the then main opposition NC is the largest party in the current ruling coalition.
Lawmakers of NC, Maoist Center, JSP and Unified Socialist then registered amendments in the unanimously passed draft regulation to curtail rights of the speaker fearing Ghimire may toe the line of UML.
The amendment proposals required the works that the speaker could do as per the regulation to be done through the decision of business advisory committee led by speaker and including representatives of the political parties, deputy speaker and law minister.
The HoR regulation has now been passed without the amendments that would have curtailed the rights of speaker after the lawmakers withdrew those amendment proposals.
It, however, has incorporated some of the amendment proposals including formation of a committee led by a female lawmaker for coordination of women in the House, communication to lawmakers about the House business through electronic medium, publishing of bills registered in the House on the website on the day of registration and others.
