More than four months after its first meeting, the federal parliament on Monday formed one of its 16 committees.

The Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee was formed after the opposition Nepali Congress provided the names of its members.

The 15-member panel quizzes nominees for constitutional positions and ambassadorial postings. It has representatives from both the Houses of federal parliament—12 from the House of Representatives and three from the National Assembly. Suman Pyakurel and Nanda Chapai of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and Jitendra Narayan Dev of the NC are from the Upper House. The HoR sent Surendra Pandey, Yogesh Bhattarai, Purna Kumari Subedi, Amrita Thapa, Niru Pal, Parbat Gurung, Shiva Kumar Mandal from the ruling NCP and Pushpa Bhusal Gautam, Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and Bhimsen Das Pradhan from the NC to the committee. Laxman Lal Karna of the RJP-Nepal and Rajendra Shrestha of the SSF-Nepal are the other members. The PHSC will be chaired by the oldest member until its chair is elected. Karna is the oldest member while Bhattarai is likely to be elected the chairman. (PR)