KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Balendra Shah is scheduled to respond to questions from lawmakers during a question-and-answer session of the House of Representatives tomorrow (August 26).

According to the Parliament Secretariat, 11 lawmakers have registered questions for the Prime Minister ahead of the session.

Although lawmakers can register up to 15 questions, the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has not filled its allocated quota. RSP lawmakers can submit up to seven questions, but only three have been registered. Lawmakers from other parties have submitted questions within their respective quotas, the Secretariat said.

Speaker Dol Prasad Aryal had set August 21 as the deadline for lawmakers to register their questions after scheduling the Q&A session.

The Parliament Secretariat said Amaresh Kumar Singh, Krishnahari Budhathoki and Samiksha Baskota have registered questions on behalf of the RSP.

From the Nepali Congress, Basana Thapa and Geeta Gurung have registered questions, while Ain Bahadur Mahar and Ganesh Singh Thagunna have done so from the CPN-UML. Barshaman Pun and Pramesh Hamal have registered questions from the Nepali Communist Party (NCP).

Harkaraj Rai of the Shram Sanskriti Party and Khushbu Oli of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party have also registered questions for the Prime Minister.

At the House meeting on August 17, Speaker Aryal had directed Prime Minister Shah to attend the session and respond to lawmakers’ questions.

The directive followed repeated protests by opposition lawmakers over remarks made by Shah in Parliament on May 31. Shah had said that Nepal, like India, had encroached on the other country’s territory in several places.

The Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives provide for a question-and-answer session between the Prime Minister and lawmakers during the first week of every month.

However, the regular Q&A session has not been held. The Speaker has therefore directed Prime Minister Shah to answer lawmakers’ questions at the upcoming House meeting.