Term of 19 National Assembly members expires

With the term of 19 more members expiring on Sunday, the 60-member National Assembly (NA) is now left with only 19 members, reports said.

The term of 22 NA members, including that of its Chairman, had already expired leaving only 38 lawmakers in the Upper House of Parliament.

Of the 19 NA members retiring today, 9 and 7 represented the major opposition parties- the CPN-UML and Nepali Congress (NC) respectively, while the remaining three were appointed by His Majesty the King, Nepal Samacharpatra reported.

According to the report, Uttam Kumar Mahat, Kashinath Adhikary, Kedar Prasad Neupane, Mohan Bahadur Bam, Ramchandra Bhattarai, Lal Bahadur BK, Bachaspati Devkota, Bishweswora Dahal and Bir Bahadur Singh of the UML, and Ambika Panta, Amiya Kumar Yadav, Khagendra Raj Regmi, Jeet Bahadur Puri, Tilak Prasad Neupane, Dil Bahadur Gharti and Sukraraj Sharma of the NC are retiring as the NA members today.

Foreign Affairs Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey, Rishi Babu Pariyar and Mohan Raj Sharma- the King’s nominees in the NA are also retiring today.

During their 6-year-long term, the members could actively exercise their constitutional duty only for about two years due to the political disturbances in the country, the report said.

As per the constitutional provisions, In the 60-member National Assembly or Upper House, the King nominates 10 members, the House of Representatives elect 35 (including at least 3 women) members, and 15 members (three from each development regions) are elected by an ‘electoral college’. nepalnews.com pd June 26 05