Kathmandu, January 17
Nepal’s lawmakers have decided to seek the country’s Attorney General’s opinion on a motion to impeach former anti-corruption chief Lokman Singh Karki.
A parliamentary committee formed to look into the motion decided on Tuesday to hear the opinion of the government’s top legal adviser before taking a decision on the case.
Karki was appointed CIAA chief in May 2013 despite facing charges by the Rayamajhi commission of having suppressed the people’s movement. The then Cabinet had also declared him ineligible to hold any public office in the future. As CIAA chief, Karki was accused of running a ‘parallel’ government and using his power and influence to fulfill his vested interests. On January 8, a bench of justices Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Ananda Mohan Bhatarai, and Anil Kumar Sinha deemed Karki’s appointment to the post invalid, and said he was not qualified to hold the position.
Meanwhile, Karki left for the Indian capital on a flight of national flag carrier, Nepal Airlines, on Sunday. According to multiple sources, Karki was accompanied by his wife Sunita, and the couple’s flight took off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport at 9:05 am. He is learnt to be planning to head to Canada, where is son lives.
According to committee member Amanlal Modi, AG Raman Kumar Shrestha has been invited to the committee’s meeting on Wednesday.
At Monday’s meeting of the committee, lawmakers from the Nepali Congress said there’s no need to carry on with the impeachment process against Karki as he has already lost his job. While pressing the impeachment process ahead, the committee has to take Karki’s statement. It has to ask him whether or not you should be fired on the basis of these charges,” committee member and NC lawmaker Dipak Kuinkel pointed.
It will be pointless to ask this question to a person, who has already been relieved of his post. While lawmakers from the CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre, who registered the impeachment motion against Karki, said the committee should take more time to arrive at a conclusion.
Some stressed the need to carry on with the impeachment process. With committee members disagreeing on the future course. The meeting had decided to engage in legal consultations on the matter.
