KATHMANDU: Nepal’s only intelligence agency, the National Investigation Department, has been shifted back under the Prime Minister’s Office following a revision in the government’s functional allocation regulations on Wednesday.

With the amendment to the ministerial portfolio distribution rules, the agency has once again been brought under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister’s Office.

The move reverses an earlier decision taken during the tenure of UML chair and then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, when the intelligence agency was transferred from the Home Ministry to the Prime Minister’s Office.

After the Gen Z protests and the formation of the Sushila Karki-led government, the department had been returned to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

However, following the formation of a new government led by Balen Shah after the March 5 House of Representatives election—where the Rastriya Swatantra Party secured a near two-thirds majority—the intelligence agency has now been reassigned to the Prime Minister’s Office once again.