National Independent Party Chief Whip Burla Koti Suggests Limiting Complainants in Parliamentary Hearings

Kathmandu. National Independent Party (NIP) Chief Whip Kabindra Burla Koti has stated that it is not necessary to call all complainants against individuals proposed for hearings to the parliamentary hearing committee. He expressed this view on Wednesday during discussions within the parliamentary hearing committee regarding internal preparations for upcoming hearings. Chief Whip Burla Koti proposed that the authority to call or not call complainants should be kept within the jurisdiction of the committee chairperson. He suggested a provision where committee members can advise the chairperson if there is a need to mandatorily call a complainant. He emphasized the need to call only a limited number of complainants based on the nature and necessity of the complaint, as calling all complainants would affect time management and the quality of the hearing. He added, 'Let's keep the authority of calling or not calling complainants, and whom to call, with the chairperson. But if the chairperson misses a complainant, and there is a need to call that complainant, then we can suggest to the chairperson, 'Let's call this complainant too.' Then we will be more specific. If we randomly call all the complainants, the situation might arise where the complainants cannot speak, and only the lawyer they brought speaks. That should not happen. Either the complainant themselves should speak, or the lawyer who filed the complaint should speak.' He further said, 'Let's keep this within the chairperson's jurisdiction, and when we members say, 'Chairperson, this complainant should be called,' then they should be called. There might be 20 or 50 complainants, but it's not necessary to call all of them. If the intention is to overwhelm this committee by creating many complainants, I have realized that it is possible to create many complainants. If many complainants are created, we won't have enough time to properly review the complaints. If things get muddled, it will automatically pass. I made this proposal with the intention of improving this.' Burla Koti suggested that all relevant documents should be immediately provided to the committee members as soon as the names of individuals proposed for hearings are received by the committee. He also demanded arrangements for quick Zoom meetings if necessary for the decision to issue a notice against the proposed individual. He stated that the proposed individual's work plan or vision should also be provided to the members at the initial stage. He mentioned the need for procedural improvements to make the parliamentary hearing process simple, fast, transparent, and effective. Chief Whip Burla Koti advised the committee secretariat and the chairperson to prepare a clear workflow for systematically conducting the entire hearing process.