The main opposition CPN-UML has been obstructing both houses of federal parliament demanding a high-level panel to investigate the recent gold smuggling case.

However, experts, lawmakers and political leaders say the party is trying to divert ongoing investigation by making such a demand.

The UML has been obstructing Parliament since July 26. The next meeting of the House of Representatives has been scheduled for August 7.

After the party also obstructed Thursday’s meeting of the National Assembly, the assembly’s next meeting has been scheduled for Monday.

Actually, political parties make probe panels just to save the real culprits, said Chakrapani Khanal, a secretary of the CPN (Maoist Centre). “Why does anyone need such a panel when experts on the matter are doing their job?”

The government has also clarified that there is no need for such a panel, saying that competent persons are already looking into the matter.

While revealing the Cabinet’s decisions on Thursday, government spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Rekha Sharma said the Revenue Investigation Department has been probing the smuggling case. Sharma ruled out the need for any investigative task force.

On Friday, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal directed the Crime Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police to look into the smuggling of around a quintal of gold that happened to pass the Tribhuvan International Airport customs undetected.

Analysts also suspect the UML’s motive on a high-level probe committee while obstructing Parliament’s meetings.

“The UML is trying to show that the government has failed and is actually bargaining on power-sharing, especially for the leadership of parliamentary committees,” Jhalak Subedi, an analyst who has followed left politics for decades, told the Post.

Parliamentary committees remain headless as there is a tussle among the parties on the sharing of their chairs.

“Investigations cannot be conducted by non-professionals. There is no point in saying that they don’t trust the government’s mechanism,” he added.

Subedi said even the UML can demand an all-party probe only when the state authorities fail to nab the culprits.

This is nothing but the UML’s attempt to defame the government and the constitutional process, said Subedi.

Earlier too the UML had been obstructing the House since July 5, demanding the prime minister’s resignation over his controversial remarks concerning possible involvement of India in making and unmaking governments in Nepal. But the main opposition swiftly withdrew its obstruction after Dahal expressed regret over his own comment, in Parliament.

Hitraj Pande, chief whip of the Maoist Centre, believes that the main concern of UML Chairman Oli is the possible opening of various corruption cases that involve his party’s top leaders. One such case is from 2020 when the Oli government had got into a controversy after the Omni Business Corporate International failed to supply medical equipment to fight the coronavirus in time. A contract worth $10.39 million had been signed with the company on March 26 that year. Many critics had suspected corruption in the scam.

“I don’t think the UML is bargaining for leadership of parliamentary committees as they have already been assured the leadership of three committees,” he said.

UML leaders argue that they have no trust in the government’s probe into the recent cases of gold smuggling as no leaders of the ruling CPN (Maoist Centre) have been interrogated despite media reports suggesting their nexus with the smugglers.

UML chief whip Padam Giri stressed the need for a separate panel as the party has no faith in the government when it had not even questioned Maoist leaders whose suspected links in the smuggling of the precious metal by hiding it in imported e-cigarettes have been widely discussed in the media.

According to UML leaders, an independent probe panel including the justices, former Inspector Generals of Police, Additional Inspector Generals and secretaries, besides those having professional expertise in the matter, should be formed as there is no possibility now of an independent probe into the smuggling of gold.

Experts have pointed out the need for a fair and independent high-level probe committee to complement—but only after the police investigation is complete.

Former deputy inspector general of police Hemanta Malla said there is a lot of room to suspect the involvement of political parties and politicians in gold smuggling, especially given the way they react whenever such cases come to public notice.

“There are lots of examples of probe panels derailing investigations in the country. One is the Nirmala Pant rape case, another is the 33-kg gold case,” said Malla. “Once they find their own people’s involvement, panel members start to disturb the investigation and prevent it from ever drawing a conclusion.”

The rape and murder of 13-year-old Nirmala Pant of Kanchanpur on July 26, 2018 remains unsolved with the culprits still at large. The 33kg gold had disappeared from Anamnagar after being smuggled through the Tribhuvan International Airport in January 2018.

According to Malla, the way UML chair KP Sharma Oli reacted as soon as he arrived in Kathmandu from a foreign visit shows that something is fishy. On July 25, Oli had come down heavily against Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha for trying to show his connections with gold smugglers saying that he would not spare anyone, even if they were from Kot [Balkot, Oli’s residence] or Tar [Khumaltar, Prime Minister Dahal’s private residence].

“It was not an ordinary reaction. That left room for everyone to suspect political involvement in the gold smuggling case,” said Malla. “The issue has become complicated with possible involvement of politicians, political parties and even civil servants.”