Dr Govinda KC on Monday urged parliamentarians to initiate the impeachment process against Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority chief Lokman Singh Karki.

In an interaction with 15 parliamentarians from various parties, the protesting senior orthopaedic surgeon said Karki had been misusing his authority “to favour his cronies and relatives”.

“This misuse has impacted our fight for quality medical education in the country,” said Dr KC, requesting the MPs to at least initiate the impeachment process.

CPN-UML parliamentarian Rajaram Syangtan said they had little role in initiating the impeachment process even if they agreed with Dr KC’s demands. Another UML MP, Aindra Sundar Nembang said Dr KC and his team should first convince leaders of the major parties to initiate the process.

Kaushar Shah of the Nepali Congress suggested that Parliament address genuine demands of Dr KC. Asha Yadav, a UML parliamentarian, said medical colleges should be established outside Kathmandu Valley. “I have attended programmes organised by private medical colleges. I realise that they have wrongly interpreted that hundreds of students would go abroad if we decreased the number of medical [education] seats in Nepal,” Yadav said. At least 12 parliamentarians were present in the meeting organised by the Solidarity for Dr KC Alliance.

Coordinator of the alliance Dr Jiwan Kshetry asked the parliamentarians to make their positions on the issue clear. The campaigners said they had invited all the MPs to the interaction. More than 100 of them had confirmed their attendance on Sunday. By Monday morning, however, only 15 were ready to attend the event.