By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, July 16: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has summoned the meeting of the federal parliament on Sunday, July 18.
"Meeting of both, the reinstated House of Representatives (HoR) and National Assembly has been called for Sunday at 4:00 pm by the President," read a press statement issued by Keshav Prasad Ghimire, assistant spokesperson at the President's office.
Ghimire said that the meeting was called in line with Article 93 (1) of the Constitution as per the recommendation made by the Council of Ministers on Thursday.
This is the first meeting of the reinstated HoR which was dissolved by former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on May 22.
In its historic verdict on Monday, the Supreme Court had annulled Oli's move and had issued a mandamus order to call the restored House within July 18.
Earlier, the government has decided to recommend President Bidya Devi Bhandari for summoning a joint session of the House of Representatives (HoR) and the National Assembly at 4:00 pm on July 18.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers held at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM), Singha Durbar, on Thursday, decided to call the session of the Federal Parliament on its prescheduled date as per the verdict given by the Supreme Court (SC) in response to a writ petition filed by 146 lawmakers against the former PM KP Sharma Oli's decision to dissolve the HoR for the second time.
Speaking to journalists after the Cabinet meeting, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said the Cabinet meeting held today decided to recommend President Bhandari for summoning the session as per the notion of the SC's verdict.
Similarly, the Cabinet decided to extend the term of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and Commission for Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP), Nepal, and its officials by a year, according to Minister Karki, who is also the government spokesperson.
CIEDP is a five-member Commission led by Yuba Raj Subedi as chairperson and TRC is led by Chairperson Ganesh Dutta Bhatta with the same number of members.
The term of the two Commissions was to expire from July 15, according to Dr. Gangadhar Adhikari, one of the members of CIEDP