KATHMANDU, July 5: Major political parties have reached an understanding to form a seven-member special parliamentary committee to investigate the recent tampering of the cooling-off period provision in the Civil Service Bill.
The decision to form the committee was reached during a meeting held on Saturday by Speaker of the House of Representatives Devraj Ghimire with chief whips of the major political parties.
The bill courted controversy after its passage from the House of Representatives (HoR) on June 29 as clause 82 sub-clause 4 of the bill sets a two-year ‘cooling-off period’ for retired government employees, restricting them from taking constitutional or governmental positions. However, sub-clause 5 of the same clause nullifies the provision as it mentions that civil servants of secretary and joint secretary levels can still take such positions.
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Chief Whip of the ruling CPN-UML Mahesh Bartaula informed Republica that the chief whips of the major parties reached the agreement that the committee will include two members each from the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) and UML, and one each from opposition parties CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP).
“We have agreed to form a special parliamentary committee as per the clause 180 of the House of Representatives Rules and Regulations 2079 BS,” lawmaker Bartaula said, “It has also been agreed that the committee will be led by a lawmaker from the NC.”
The sub-clause 1 of clause 180 of the HoR Rules and Regulations 2079 BS states that ‘a special committee may be formed in the HoR, as necessary, for bills or other matters of a special, sensitive, or serious nature’ while the sub-clause 2 states ‘the Speaker shall, in consultation with the Business Advisory Committee, present to the meeting of the HoR a proposal specifying the functions to be carried out by the committee, its time frame, and the list of its members’.
Lawmaker Bartaula added that the committee will be formed on Monday and have a deadline of 21 days to submit a report to the parliament.
“It has been agreed to present a proposal to form the committee on Monday’s meeting of the parliament,” MP Bartaula said, “The committee will be directed to investigate the cause of the re-introduction of a redacted sub-clause relating to cooling-off period in the Federal Civil Service Bill 2024 and submit a report to the parliament within 21 days.”
Chief Whip of RSP Santosh Pariyar informed Republica that the major parties have been directed to choose lawmakers as allocated by the agreement and submit their choice to Speaker Ghimire by Sunday. He added that even though the opposition parties have been allocated a lower number of members in the probe committee, the RSP believes that the numbers of members in the committee will not affect its work.
“The controversial tampering of the bill before its passage from the HoR is an attack on the sovereignty of the parliament,” lawmaker Pariyar said, “The number of members in the committee per party will not hamper the committee’s work.”
