Upon the recommendations by a panel of lawmakers led by Pushpa Bhusal, the parliament formulated the provision by amending the existing parliamentary regulations Monday. [break]
"It is a provision to check the executive whenever necessary. On the other hand, it will also make lawmakers accountable to the people," Bhusal told Republica.
Prior to the amendment, the nominations for constitutional bodies and ambassadorial positions would be endorsed even by a single member of the committee.
That provision had made the parliamentary hearing almost useless and there was widespread demand that the parliamentary committee be made stronger.
The new amendment has also modified the earlier provision to hold a hearing on the nominees only when the positions nominated are vacant.
"Taking into account the fact that the posts in constitutional bodies or ambassadorial positions always remain vacant due to that provision, we took a decision to this effect," said Bhusal.
The new amendment has facilitated the hearings of ambassador-designate for Japan Madan Kumar Bhattarai and ambassador-designate for Bangladesh, Hari Kumar Shrestha.
The parliament has also decided that the committee can hold hearing if one-third of the committee members are present. Before this, 51 percent members needed to be present at the meeting for hearing.
Besides, the parliament has extended the period for investigating the track record of the nominees from the existing 15 days to 25 days.
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