By Our Reporter
After party chairman KP Sharma Oli after returning to his residence in Balkot from Baluwatar last week heavily criticised party senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal using harsh words that the latter would have no space in the party and a central committee meeting boycotted by the Nepal-led faction on Monday decided to seek clarifications from the 22 lawmakers who had voted in favour of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in the parliament on Sunday, the CPN-UML is now on the verge of a formal split.
The central committee meeting on Monday decided to seek clarification from its 22 lawmakers including senior leader Nepal for violating the party whip and voting in favour of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba during Sunday’s vote of confidence in the House of Representatives.
Although the Supreme Court in its July 12 verdict clearly stated that party whip would not be applicable for supporting the government formed under Article 76 (5), the meeting of the UML Central Committee decided to ask its 22 lawmakers to submit clarification within 24 hours.
Fourteen lawmakers close to leader Nepal and eight close to Oli had voted for Deuba while 10 lawmakers close to Nepalcamp, including Surendra Pandey, Ghanshyam Bhusal, Yogesh Bhattarai and Jhapat Rawal boycotted the voting defying the party’s whip to vote against the government.
Party chairman Oli had tabled a proposal at the meeting to serve a 24-hour ultimatum to the lawmakers to furnish clarification.
Lawmakers including senior leader Nepal, Bhawani Khapung, Mukunda Neupane, Birodh Khatiwada, Ram Kumari Jhakri, Jeevan Ram Shrestha, Kalyani Khadka, Met Mani Chaudhary, Parbati Bisunkhe, Hira KC, Krishna Kumar Shrestha (Kishan), Gopal Bam, Prem Bahadur, Ale Laxmi Chaudhary, Nira Devi Jairu, Kalila Khatun, Sabina Hussain, Krishna Lal Maharjan, Dhan Bahadur Budha, Bina Budathoki, Sarala Yadav and Pushpa Kumari Karna had voted for Prime Minister Deuba.
However, Met Mani Chaudhary, a lawmaker close to the Madhav Nepal camp, said they were not obliged to follow the unilateral decision taken by Oli’s camp.
Chaudhary said the decision to seek clarification from 22 lawmakers was against Article 76 (5) of the Constitution and against the verdict of the Constitutional bench which ruled that party whip does not apply when lawmakers take part in the voting to elect a new Prime Minister.
However, the central committee meeting on Tuesday took no further decision.
15 ordinances tabled in reinstated HoR
A total of 15 ordinances were presented in the first meeting of the Federal Parliament that began on Sunday after the restoration of the House of Representatives. The ordinances were presented in the meeting in line with the HoR Regulation- 2018.
Beginning the first meeting of the parliament, Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota read out the letter issued by the Office of the President regarding summoning the assembly. He also informed the House about the formation of the new Council of Ministers.
The tabled ordinances included ordinances relating to Oath of Office, railway ordinance-2021, ordinances related to Drugs (third amendment)-2078, COVID-19 Crisis Management-2078, Health Workers and Health Institutions Security (first amendment).
Likewise, Home Minister Balkrishna Khand presented the ordinance related to Social Security (first amendment) 2078, Nepal Police and Province Police Work Execution, Monitoring and Coordination (first amendment)-2078, Acid and Other Hazardous Chemicals (Regulation) Ordinance-2078, and Nepal Citizenship (first amendment)-2078.
Similarly, Minister Karki tabled the ordinances related to Enforced Disappears, Investigation, Truth and Reconciliation Commission (third amendment)-2077, Ordinance to Amend Some Laws Against the Sexual Abuses-2078, and Ordinance related to Amend Some Acts on Criminal Abuse and Criminal Codes-2078.
Minister for Finance Janardan Sharma presented the Economic Ordinance-2078, Appropriation Ordinance-2078 among others.
The meeting also passed a condolence motion over the demise of 11 members of the Federal Parliament and former lawmakers.
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