IRC submits report on Karki to Speaker Gharti Action recommended on 4 of 7 counts

Feb 11, 2017- The Impeachment Recomme-ndation Committee of Parliament has submitted its investigation report against Lokman Singh Karki to Speaker Onasari Gharti, recommending action in four of the seven charges filed in the impeachment motion.

The committee, however, has not recommended Karki’s impeachment saying that the House “cannot” impeach him as the Supreme Court has already removed him as the chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority.

The report was prepared on the basis of recommendations by the IRC subcommittee, which looked into the charges for two weeks. The report will be discussed in Parliament before it is tabled for endorsement. If it is approved, the House will ask the government to book Karki in the cases in which he was found guilty.

The House can also reject the report and free Karki of any charges or can send the report to back the IRC directing it to furnish another report recommending impeachment, according to Rewati Raman Bhandari, a member of the committee. The sub-panel led by Ram Narayan Bidari in its investigation had found that Karki breached his jurisdiction and interfered in the MD entrance examination at Kathmandu University, pressured the Nepal Medical Council to increase MBBS seats for KIST Medical College, which is partly owned by his brother, infringed upon the jurisdiction of various government agencies and hired officials and appointed investigation officers bypassing the legal procedures.

The subcommittee had also concluded that there is no need to investigate into contempt of court charges against Karki for not receiving the Supreme Court summons, as the case has already been decided by the apex court. “Our report has opened the door for taking legal action against Karki by the respective government agencies in case he is found guilty,” said Bhandari. The report of the sub-panel was endorsed by the 11-member IRC before it was submitted to the Speaker.

The committee, however, did not find him guilty of phone tapping and intimidation, recommending further investigation as it lacked adequate proof.

In the impeachment motion registered by 157 lawmakers from the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre), Karki faced seven charges including spying on high-level government officials and political leaders and misusing Nepal Police and National Intelligence Department resources to put targeted individuals under surveillance. The House meeting scheduled for February 21 is likely to start discussion on the report.