A delegation led by House Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar remained busy in holding bilateral meetings in London on Wednesday.  Gharti led seven-member delegation is currently visiting the UK on the invitation of British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union to study the British parliamentary procedure.

Chief whips of four major political parties—Nepali Congress’s Chin Kaji Shrestha, CPN-UML’s Bhanu Bakta Dhakal, UCPN (Maoist)’s Hitraj Pandey and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal’s Dilnath Giri—general secretary of Parliament secretariat Manohar Prasad Bhattarai and secretary Mukunda Prasad Sharma are the members of the delegation.

Speaker Gharti on Tuesday met Speaker of British House of Commons John Bercow MP and the speaker of British House of Lords Baroness D'Souza. 

The parliamentary delegation was welcomed by deputy speaker of British Parliament and Ways and Means Chairman on Monday (April 18). They were briefed about the UK House of Commons and Westminster system by Principal Clerk at Overseas Office Crispin Poyser.

The delegation held its first meeting with Women and Equalities Committee Chairperson and MP Maria Miller followed by a meeting with Foreign Affairs Committee member MP Andrew Rosindell. On the same day, the parliamentary delegation held meetings with South Asia Department head Laura Clarke, and all-party parliamentary committee Nepal-Britain chairman Birendra Sharma.

A range of issues such as Nepal-Britain bilateral ties, earthquake, post-quake reconstruction plan, development programmes of DFID and the grievances of retired Gurkha soldiers were discussed during various meetings, London-based Nepali Embassy said.

Executive member of British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union David Wayne hosted a dinner for the Nepali delegation.

The delegation held a routable on bilateral & other issues with British MPs & Peers chaired by MP Gareth Thomas.