KATHMANDU, Dec 14: President Dr Ram Baran Yadav has summoned a Special Session of the House for December 19, acting on the petition filed by lawmakers belonging to the Maoists and smaller parties on Sunday.
According to a press statement issued by the President´s Office Monday evening, President Dr Yadav has summoned the Special Session for 1 pm as per Article 51 (3) of the Interim Constitution.
The decision comes after Dr Yadav held separate meetings with Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Speaker Subash Nembang and legal experts on Monday.
Article 51 (3) states that if, during the prorogation or recess of a session or meeting of the Legislature-Parliament, at least one fourth of the total members of parliament make a petition that it is expedient to convene such a session or meeting, the President shall, no later than 15 days, convene such a session or meeting by specifying the date and time for the same.
On Sunday, 187 lawmakers belonging to various opposition parties including the UCPN (Maoist) had filed a petition demanding that President Yadav summon a Special House Session.
The lawmakers stated in the petition that a House session had become essential to elect a new prime minister, amend parliamentary regulations and discuss other urgent issues facing the country. However, the press statement issued by the President´s Office is silent about the agenda of the Special House Session.
The government prorogued the House session after Maoist lawmakers assaulted Finance Minister Surendra Pandey when he was preparing to unveil the budget for fiscal year 2010/11 on November 20. The government later unveiled a new budget through ordinance.
On Monday, Prime Minister Nepal also kept himself busy in consultations whether to summon a Regular House Session in the context of Maoist lawmakers demanding a Special Session.
The prime minister held separate meetings in the morning with the chief whips of coalition partners, the law minister and lawyers close to the CPN-UML at his official residence at Baluwatar, after a one-hour meeting with President Yadav that began at 7 am.
The prime minister also held a meeting later in the afternoon, with leaders of political parties that stood against the petition to summon a Special Session.
During the meeting held at the prime minister´s official residence at Baluwatar, legal experts suggested that the government could summon a Regular House session even as a Special Session is underway. “We suggested that the government can summon a Regular Session of the House even when the Special Session is underway,” said advocate Tika Ram Bhattarai, who was present at the meeting.
Bhattarai argued that the Special Session with a limited agenda, which has been demanded by 187 lawmakers, will end soon while a Regular Session summoned at the recommendation of the government will last longer. “So, there is no problem running both sessions simultaneously,” he added.
While most coalition partners of the current government are in favor of summoning a Regular Session without any delay, some Madhes-based parties and small parties are for summoning the Special Session first, according to NC Chief Whip Laxman Ghimire.
In a meeting organized by Prime Minister Nepal at his office in Singha Durbar, the ruling parties suggested the government summon a Regular House Session before the President summons a Special Session as per the petition filed by the 187 lawmakers.
However, various small parties including Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Nepal have argued that the government should not summon a Regular House session before the President summons the Special Session, according to the prime minister´s advisor, Raghuji Panta.
Panta said that the prime minister will hold further consultations before taking a decision on summoning a Regular Session as there are differing views on the matter.
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