20 December 2019, Kathmandu
The winter session of the Federal Parliament has commenced on Friday. President Bidya Devi Bhandari had earlier summoned the fifth winter session of the Federal Parliament at 4 pm on Friday.
Shiva Maya Tumbhahamphe, Deputy Speaker at the House of Representatives (HoR) chaired the session as the post of the Speaker is vacant after the then Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara resigned from the post following sexual allegations against him.
The House has been briefed about the rescheduled cabinet and other important decisions and tasks of the government. The Winter Session is likely to discuss Citizenship Bill, Federal Civil Servants Bill, Passport Bill, the Bill related to Integrated Land Management, and Millennium Challenge Corporation) pact.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives (HoR) and National Assembly (NA) sessions passed condolence motions on the demise of four former lawmakers.
The deceased former lawmakers were Hari Bairagi, 62, from Sankhuwasabha-2 elected for House of Representatives member in 2051 BS; Kamala Kumari Ghimire, 50, elected to Constituent Assembly (CA) in 2070 BS under proportional category; and Ram Lakhan Mahato, 66, elected from Dhanusha-5 in 2051 BS.
All of them belonged to the then CPN-UML party. similarly, another deceased lawmaker was from Nepali Congress (NC), Rameshwar Dhungel, 66, who was elected from Bhaktapur-2 for the Constituent Assembly in 2070 BS. Both the Houses observed one-minute silence in memory of the deceased lawmakers.
The HoR will meet again at 1:00 pm on December 27 while the NA meets at 1:00 pm on December 23. Meanwhile, a meeting of the parliamentary Business Advisory Committee today has decided to begin the process of electing a new Speaker from December 28.
Sources said that the HoR will initiate the process of electing a new Speaker only after a week on December 27.
