Writ filed at Supreme Court demanding to stop special session of Lumbini Province Assembly

NL Today

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Kathmandu: A writ petition has been filed at the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday demanding to halt a special session of Lumbini Province Assembly.

UML Province Assembly member Leela Giri moved the apex court demanding the session summoned for Wednesday be stopped arguing the move to be unconstitutional.

A special session of Lumbini Province Assembly has been summoned on August 11. The session will decide on a no-confidence motion filed against Chief Minister Shankar Pokharel. Lumbini Province Chief Amik Sherchan has convened a meeting of the province assembly at 1 pm on Wednesday.

A no-confidence motion was tabled against CM Pokharel at Province Assembly Secretariat on Tuesday. The motion that was tabled under the leadership of NC Parliamentary Party leader Birendra Kumar Kanodia has been signed by 34 lawmakers from Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), Janata Samajbadi Party and Rastriya Janamorcha. Kul Prasad KC of CPN (Maoist Center) has been proposed as Chief Minister in the motion.

The lawmakers had met Province Chief Amik Sherchan and demanded to summon a special session of the Province Assembly.

On last Monday, a total of 41 Lumbini Province Assembly members had submitted their signatures to the Province Chief demanding to make a call for forming a majority government as per Article 168(2) of the Constitution.

Opposition parties had filed a no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Shankar Pokharel on April 19 after CPN (Maoist Center) withdrew its support from the government. But Chief Minister Pokharel recommended ending the Province Assembly session and resigned to skip the motion. Then, Pokharel had staked his claim for a single majority government before the then Province Chief Dharmanath Yadav.

Despite protest from opposition parties arguing that Pokharel doesn’t command the majority, Yadav had appointed Pokharel to the post and had administered the oath at the Chief Minister’s Office.