KATHMANDU, Sept 7: In a bid to meet a constitutional deadline, parliament is out to endorse bills relating to fundamental rights without addressing public concerns and resolving disputes about some controversial provisions in the bills.
Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara claimed that all the bills relating to fundamental rights will be endorsed within the constitutional deadline of September 19, forging consensus on issues of common understanding.
Scramble to meet deadline on fundamental right laws
“Some differences may not be resolved while endorsing the bills by September 19. We will first endorse the bills for now, focusing on the issues of common consensus, as the government can amend the unresolved issues even after the laws are enacted,” Mahara told journalists at Singha Durbar, Thursday.
“Some corrections will be made through the parliamentary committees for now, and the remaining issues will be addressed later,” he said. Certain complexities in laws can be identified only during the implementation phase, he claimed, indicating demands for amendments to the Muluki Code a year after their endorsement by parliament.
Speaker Mahara is setting off on a five-day visit to Tibet on Saturday, at a time when parliament is sitting on 15 bills relating to fundamental rights even as September 19 looms. Mahara maintained that his visit abroad will not affect the law-making.
“All the 11 bills registered at the House of Representatives have been sent to the various committees of parliament and the full house can do nothing until the committees submit their reports,” he said .
The speaker’s stance was that parliament will endorse all fundamental rights related bills in two or three days after his return. He claimed that the deputy speaker is also being asked to convene House meetings on urgent issues during his own absence.
Mahara met Prime Minister KP Oli who is also a chairman of ruling Nepal Communist Party and urged him to instruct the party’s lawmakers to participate actively in discussions on the fundamental rights bills and help fast-track the endorsement process. Summoning the ad-hoc chairpersons of the 10 lower house committees, Mahara instructed them to submit reports on the fundamental rights related bills in a week.
Mahara is scheduled to visit Lhasa along with a 10-member team comprising lawmakers and parliament secretariat staffers to attend a cultural expo.
