Kathmandu, November 17
The Parliament’s Impeachment Recommendation Committee can now search the house and office of individuals under the purview of its investigation.
Thursday’s meeting of the committee passed a working procedure, including this provision, among others.
There had been a long discussion on whether or not to grant the committee this authority. In the end, we decided to allow search of the house and office of the accused, in course of investigation.
This comes at a time when the Parliament is delving into the impeachment motion filed against suspended CIAA Chief Commissioner Lokman Singh Karki.
The House will send the motion to the committee once discussions on the motion are over.
As per the working procedure, the committee will issue a notice calling the accused to appear before it within seven days after issuance of the notice. If the accused fails to appear, the committee will give another seven days. If the accused does not appear before the committee within the extended deadline, the committee will take charges against the person as true.
The procedure has provisions that allow the committee to summon the accused for clarification, take their statements and record their confessions as per the need, Ram Narayan Bidari, coordinator of the working procedure sub-committee, informed.
As per the procedure, the committee will have to pass the report unanimously or with a simple majority before sending it to the House.
In the absence of committee chair, either a member or secretary of the committee can sign on the report.
