69 ex-MPs yet to part with red passports
KATHMANDU: As many as 69 former Constituent Assembly members have yet to return their diplomatic passports that they had acquired in capacity of parliamentarians, despite National Vigilance Centre’s directive to do so. The former lawmakers were supposed to return their diplomatic passports within a week of dissolution of the CA.
NVC, an-anti-corruption body, had sent circulars to the Parliament Secretariat and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to do the needful to get diplomatic passports from former lawmakers back.
“Of 522 former CA members, 69 have not returned their red passports,” informed an official at MoFA. The Secretariat is planning to make public names of those parliamentarians who have failed to follow the NVC directive. “Discussions are under way whether to publish a notice with the names of non-complying former lawmakers or make their names public through the print media,” said an official at the Secretariat.
Mukunda Sharma, Spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat, however, said the former lawmakers have sought some time to return their passports. “They should have returned their passports of their own volition after they lost their CA membership,” said Sharma.
In its circulars, NVC has mentioned that the red passports could be misused. Six CA members were convicted of misusing their red passports in the past.HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE
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