Prime Minister Shah to face MPs’ questions in HoR today

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister (PM) Balendra Shah (Balen) is scheduled to answer questions from lawmakers during a question-and-answer session at the House of Representatives meeting today, August 26.

According to the Parliament Secretariat, 11 lawmakers have registered questions for the session with Prime Minister Shah.

Although up to 15 questions can be registered for the session, lawmakers from the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) have not used their full quota. RSP lawmakers are entitled to register up to seven questions, but only three have been registered. Lawmakers from other parties have registered questions according to their respective quotas, the Secretariat said.

Speaker Dol Prasad Aryal had asked lawmakers to register their questions by August 21 after scheduling the question-and-answer session.

According to the Parliament Secretariat, Amaresh Kumar Singh, Krishnahari Budhathoki and Samiksha Baskota have registered questions from the RSP.

Similarly, Basana Thapa and Geeta Gurung have registered questions from the Nepali Congress, while Ain Bahadur Mahar and Ganesh Singh Thagunna have registered questions from the CPN-UML. Barshaman Pun and Pramesh Hamal have registered questions from the Nepali Communist Party (NCP).

Harkaraj Rai of the Shram Sanskriti Party and Khushbu Oli of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party have also registered questions for the Prime Minister.

During the House of Representatives meeting on August 17, Speaker Aryal had directed Prime Minister Shah to attend the House and respond to lawmakers’ questions.

Prime Minister Shah had made controversial remarks in Parliament on May 31, stating that Nepal, like India, had encroached on the other country’s territory in several places. The Speaker’s directive came after opposition lawmakers repeatedly protested against Shah’s remarks in subsequent House meetings.

The Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives also provide for a question-and-answer session between the Prime Minister and lawmakers during the first week of every month.

However, as the regular question-and-answer session has not been held, the Speaker has directed Prime Minister Shah to respond to lawmakers’ questions at the upcoming meeting.