Kathmandu: After a span of nine months since the House of Representatives (HoR) was elected, all ten thematic committees under it have finally elected their leadership. These committees cover a wide range of areas such as finance, international relations and tourism, industry and commerce, labor and consumer interests, law, justice and human rights, agriculture, cooperatives and natural resources.

During the HoR meeting held today, the Presidents of these thematic committees were elected. The nominations for these elections had been submitted the previous Sunday.

Among the ten committees, nine witnessed the submission of sole nominations, leading to the respective nominees being elected as the committee Presidents. In the case of the Industry, Commerce, Labor and Consumer Interest Committee, Abdul Khan of Janamat Party secured the position after his opponent Ganesh Parajuli of Rastriya Swatantra Party withdrew his candidacy, as informed by the Federal Parliament Secretariat.

Key elected positions include Santosh Chalise from Nepali Congress (NC) as the President of the Finance Committee and Raj Kishore Yadav of Janata Samajwadi Party as the chair of the International Relations and Tourism Committee.

Moreover, Bimala Subedi of CPN (Maoist Centre) will lead the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee, Arzu Rana Deuba from NC will be the chairperson of the Agriculture Cooperatives and Natural Resources Committee, and Kiran Kumar Sah will preside over the Women and Social Affairs Committee. Ramhari Khatiwada has been elected to lead the State Affairs and Good-Governance Committee, as per the Secretariat.

Deepak Bahadur Singh of Rastriya Prajatantra Party is set to head the Infrastructure Development Committee, while Bhanubhakta Joshi from CPN (Unified Socialist) will chair the Education, Health and Information Technology Committee. Rishikesh Pokharel of CPN (UML) will be the leader of the Public Accounts Committee.

The Secretariat is currently preparing for the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected committee chairpersons, scheduled for later today.