Kathmandu, Oct 23: It is likely to take one and half moth for the Legislature-Parliament to finalise the impeachment motion registered against Chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) Lokman Singh Karki. The Parliament is commencing the discussions on the motion from October 25. The Parliament is expected to take two days (October 25 and 26) to wrap up preliminary discussions on the impeachment proposal.
Following the completion of the deliberations on the motion, it shall be sent to the recently formed Impeachment Recommendation Committee under the Legislature- Parliament. The 11-member committee shall have a deadline of one month to study the motion and come up with its further decision (proposal) regarding this. The person charged with impeachment shall be provided opportunity to defend himself.
The committee is formed for the purpose of making recommendation after inquiring into whether there exists the ground and reason for moving a motion of impeachment against the person facing the impeachment charges.
According to Parliament Secretariat Spokesperson Dr Bharat Raj Gautam, there is the provision that the Recommendation Committee’s proposal shall be presented before the full meeting of the Legislature-Parliament for discussions and giving it a full shape. The House shall decide whether to move the impeachment proposal ahead. If the House decided to move it ahead, it shall be presented before the House for the final verdict. The proposal shall be approved by the two-third majority.
As per the constitutional provision, one fourth of the number of the House may move a motion of impeachment against the person holding constitutional posts on the ground of serious violation of the office code of conducts.
This is perhaps the first case in country’s history that an impeachment proposal was filed at the Legislature-Parliament. Such practice is also rare in the world. Sometime ago, Brazil’s the then President Dilma Rousseff was removed from the post through impeachment.
What are accusations in the impeachment?
The notice regarding the impeachment motion against Karki states that he issued directive to Institute of Medicine (IoM) under the Tribhuwan University to take action against some professors, which is mentioned as Karki’s improper act of exercising some provisions of the interim constitution in the wake of promulgation of new constitution.
Furthermore, CIAA Chief Karki has been accused of piling pressure on the Medical Council and the concerned University to increase the quota in the Kist Medical College where the close kins of Karki are said to own the share.
Similarly, unnecessary interference in the MBBS entrance exam conducted by the Kathmandu University is also one of the charges facing the Chief of the anti-graft body.
He is also accused of manipulating the Prevention of Corruption Act, 2059 and causing troubles for the government employees under the pretext of investigation of corruption cases.
The charge against Karki includes revengeful activities against those persons and organizations not agreeing with his performance.
Parliamentarians have pressed for forwarding the impeachment motion against Karki who is accused of violating the office code of conducts.
They have also termed CIAA Chief Karki as morally flawed person lacking official competency. RSS