Kathmandu [Nepal], July 9 – Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has questioned the role of speaker Dol Prasad Aryal over his handling of the controversy surrounding Prime Minister Balen Shah’s remarks on the Nepal-India border dispute.
Speaking in the House of Representatives on Thursday, NCP lawmaker Pramesh Hamal criticised the speaker for not directing Prime Minister Shah to correct his statement that “Nepal has also encroached in India’s land.” Hamal also objected to Speaker Aryal’s appeal to opposition lawmakers to change the way they were protesting over the prime minister’s remarks.
Opposition parties have been protesting for an extended period demanding that the prime minister’s statement on the border dispute be removed from the official parliamentary record.
As in previous sittings opposition lawmakers stood up from their seats as soon as Thursday’s house meeting began. Speaker Aryal noting that the protest over the same issue had continued for a long time urged the opposition to adopt a different approach.
Responding to the Speaker’s appeal Hamal said the Speaker should instead have instructed the prime minister to return to Parliament and clarify his statement.
He added that there could be no compromise on issues of national sovereignty and said the opposition would continue its protest until the Prime Minister provided an explanation.
