Aryal for National Assembly, Shrestha for NTNC chair spark favouritism concerns

The Sushila Karki-led government has recommended Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal for a vacant seat in the National Assembly and appointed Adarsha Kumar Shrestha, the PM’s Chief Personal Secretary, as chairperson of the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), decisions which have drawn intense scrutiny over potential favouritism.

Aryal is set to fill the lone expert seat available for presidential nomination on the cabinet’s recommendation. The 59-member National Assembly, the upper house of Parliament, allows three such nominations, with each member serving a six-year term. One-third of the members of the chamber were recently elected on January 25. 

Ideally, the “expert” seat in the National Assembly should be non-political. The purpose of these nominations is to bring in individuals with specialised knowledge, professional experience, or technical expertise to contribute to legislative deliberations, rather than to serve political interests.

Notably, Aryal himself is a member of the cabinet that nominated him. This blurs the line between an independent expert and a political appointee, raising questions about impartiality. Aryal’s political position and lack of clear technical expertise also make him a controversial choice. Additionally, PM Karki’s decision is clearly a case of favoritism, where she is rewarding an insider rather than selecting an independent expert.

Shrestha, a law practitioner with a postgraduate degree in sociology, is set to chair the NTNC, which fell vacant following the resignation of former environment and forests minister Ain Bahadur Shahi. According to the NTNC Act 1982, the Prime Minister, also the Trust’s patron, holds the authority to nominate the chairperson.

Shrestha’s appointment revives concerns over nepotism. In his tenure as chief personal secretary to the Prime Minister, Shrestha used his position to appoint relatives to the secretariat, including his wife.

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The appointments drew widespread public criticism, while the PMO defended them as lawful. The secretariat was later reduced from 20 to six staffers amid growing outcry, yet Shrestha retained his influential role.

Critics argue that elevating political loyalists to long-term, high-profile posts risks contradicting the anti-corruption mandate that underpinned the Karki-led interim government. They caution that such moves may reinforce old patterns of patronage at a moment when citizens expect governance rooted in merit, transparency, and public trust.