Kathmandu, December 16
Discussions on a new bill that the government registered to unify various laws related to the sports sector have been halted after members of a parliamentary committee had differences over definitions of national and international players.
The Education and Health Committee in the House of Representatives will resume the discussion on Friday only.
The government had not defined the players in its original version of the bill. However, the National Assembly added the definitions, categorising winners of national sports events as national players and winners of international sports events as international players.
Some lawmakers including the Minister for Youth and Sports, Jagat Bahadur Sunar advocated for sticking to the Upper House’s definition during the meeting today.
However, his own party’s Jeevan Ram Shrestha, who also leads the National Olympics Committee, opposed. Shrestha, Divya Mani Rajbhandari and Sarita Giri said participation in the respective events should qualify the players to be called national or international players.
