With Nepali Congress asking for larger share in the leadership of the parliamentary committees, the formation of parliamentary committees in the federal parliament is expected to be delayed if the top leaders failed to discuss the issue soon.

As main opposition Nepali Congress remained firm on selection of leadership of parliamentary committees through consensus, National Assembly (NA) failed to form four parliamentary committees on Sunday. Though formation of parliamentary committees was one of the agendas of the NA for Sunday, NA Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina removed it after the main opposition refused to give the names of its lawmakers.

The Nepali Congress has said that they will not provide names of the lawmakers without clarifying the position of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) on selecting the leadership of the parliamentary committees. The main opposition is for selecting the parliamentary committees’ leadership through consensus.

“We have told the NA chairman that the NC would only give the names of its lawmakers after they make the process of selecting the leadership of the parliamentary committees clear,” said Surendra Raj Pandey, leader of the NC parliamentary party of the National Assembly.

With the endorsement of joint parliamentary regulation on Friday, federal parliament can begin the process of forming the parliamentary committees. As per the regulation, there will be 16 parliamentary committees, 10 at the House of Representatives (HoR), four at NA and two joint committees.

While the ruling NCP saying due parliamentary process should be followed while selecting the leadership, NC is for consensus. With the two major parties locking horns on the leadership issue, formation of parliamentary committees is expected to delay further. Top leaders of both the parties might need to intervene to ensure early formation of the committees, leaders said.

The NC has also demanded the NCP to determine the number of lawmakers that constitute the four different committees of NA as well as which party would represent in the three members allocated for NA in the two joint committees of the federal parliament. NC chief whip Bal Krishna Khand said the leadership of the 16 committees should be divided proportionately based on the strength of the parties. “Since we have around 23 pc strength in the federal parliament, it’s obvious that we expect the leadership of the committees accordingly,” Khand said.

After main opposition started bargaining for the leadership, ruling NCP has reminded NC of its past. NCP leaders claimed that NC had refused to share even the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in the past and had urged to send a certain lawmaker if that was to be given for the opposition and therefore the PAC had remained headless for the whole year. However, Khand has reminded NCP the practice of past two Constituent Assemblies that doubled as the legislature parliament during where the leadership was finalized through consensus.

Citing the NC’s reluctance to provide leadership of the committees in the past, NCP leaders were hell-bent against sharing the leadership except the PAC. “We’ve informed the Prime Minister about the NC’s concern over leadership issue,” said Subas Nembang, deputy leader of NCP. “However, given the past practice, we can’t let NC to lead parliamentary committees except PAC.”

With no Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee (PHSC) in place, major constitutional bodies including Supreme Court, CIAA are lying headless for months while appointment of ambassadors have also been affected.

Meanwhile lawmaker of Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N) Brikhesh Chandra Lal has also opined that the leadership of the committees must be selected on the basis of proportional representation and be inclusive.

“Since the parliament should be a place of oppositions, the ruling parties should share the leadership

of the committees among the national parties,” Lal said. On sharing committees with coalition partner, Nembang said the party would discuss with coalition partner Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal.