Nepal Nepal: House of Representatives witnesses ruckus over ordinance
Kathmandu/UNI: Nepal's House of Representatives met on Monday after it was reinstated by a Supreme Court order and saw unruly scenes with lawmakers from opposition parties raising slogans against the government from the well of the House and ruling party lawmakers close to Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal walking out of the House over its agenda.
The Dahal-Nepal faction also demanded that Prime Minister Oli clarify which party's government he was leading after the Supreme Court nullified the unification between the CPN-UML and the CPN-MC, The Himalayan Times reported.
Opposition lawmakers from the Nepali Congress and Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal swarmed the well of the House shouting slogans demanding that the government withdraw the Constitution Council Amendment Ordinance. Bhim Bahadur Rawal, of the Dahal-Nepal camp, demanded that only passing of condolence message be listed for today's business, but Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota told the House that the agenda of ordinances had already been listed.
Sapkota gave Minister of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs Lilanath Shrestha time to table the recently issued ordinances in the House, following which lawmakers of the Dahal-Nepal faction of the NCP walked out of the House.
When the ordinance related to the amendment of the Constitutional Council Act was tabled in the house by Minister Shrestha, the NC lawmakers stalled the proceedings in the House. NC Whip Pushpa Bhusal said the government amended the Constitutional Council Act through an ordinance, which was against the spirit of the constitution, and the government should withdraw it, adding that the government had wrested control in the Constitutional Council, undermining checks and balances maintained by the constitution.
She went on to add that the Constitutional Council had the representation of all three state organs, but the ordinance did away with such checks and balances.
But even after Bhusal's demand that the ordinance is withdrawn, the speaker allowed Minister Shrestha to table the ordinance. NC Chief Whip Bal Krishna Khand rose from his chair and again urged the government to withdraw the ordinance. When the minister tabled the ordinance, lawmakers from the NC and Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal raised slogans in the well of the House, following which Speaker Sapkota postponed the House for 10 minutes. The government, however, did not table any other ordinance.
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