Nepali parliament holds first session

The first session of the federal parliament of Nepal was held in the capital Kathmandu yesterday and it endorsed the interim working procedure of the legislature, officials said.The first session took place three months after the Himalayan nation successfully held landmark provincial and federal parliament elections simultaneously in two phases in November and December last year.As the eldest member of parliament, Rastriya Janata Party leader Mahanta Thakur presided over the House of Representatives while Taradevi Bhatta presided over the National Assembly, the Himalayan Times reported. The presiding officers of both the houses are yet to be elected.There are 275 members in the House of Representatives or the lower house, in which 165 members were elected under the first-past-the-post category or direct election and 110 on the proportional representation basis.Similarly, there are 59 members in the National Assembly or the Upper House.The members of both the houses were sworn in on Sunday at a function at the Federal Parliament Building.Last week, Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli expanded his cabinet inducting four new ministers including the minister for finance and home affairs, taking the number of ministers to seven.The prime minister had formed a small cabinet on the day of his election on February 15 inducting Lal Babu Pandit as the minister for environment and Tham Maya Thapa as the minister for women and social welfare. Oli, the chairman of the CPN (UML) party, is the 41st prime minister of the Himalayan nation. Oli succeeded Sher Bahadur Deuba of Nepali Congress Party, who had been in power since June 7, 2017.