PM and Speaker in separate consultations in bid to end parliament deadlock

17 May, Kathmandu : Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Speaker of the House of Representatives Devraj Ghimire have initiated separate consultations with the leaders of the political parties for ending the gridlock in the parliament.

PM Dahal has called the leaders of the parties in the ruling coalition, the CPN (UML), the CP (Maoist Centre) and the Rastriya Swatantra Party for consultations at Singha Durbar. According to the PM’s Secretariat, the discussions are in progress.

Similarly, as the guardian, the Speaker Ghimire has been holding consultations with the leaders and the whips of the ruling and opposition parties from time to time to make the House proceedings regular and resume its business.
Spokesman for the Parliament Secretariat Ekram Giri said that discussions are on with the political parties regarding operating the parliament meeting which is currently in a state of obstruction and today’s meeting has been delayed as the opposition party has sought some time.

The meeting of the House of Representatives was scheduled for 11.00 am while that of the National Assembly is scheduled for 1.15pm today. The main opposition party, Nepali Congress, is also in discussions with the leaders of other opposition parties. The main opposition party has been obstructing the meetings under the current session of the Federal Parliament so far, calling for forming a parliamentary investigation committee to look into the misappropriation of cooperatives funds.

The C has also demanded that the Speaker Ghimire should play a neutral and impartial role. The main opposition party has been obstructing the House meetings from the very first day of the commencement of the current session of Parliament on May 14. However, it had allowed President Ramchandra Paudel to present the government’s policies and programmes for the upcoming fiscal year in the joint session of the Federal Parliament on May 15.

But the meeting scheduled for the same evening had to be postponed without taking up the agenda, including extending thanks to the President for presenting the policies and programmes, due to the obstruction by the main opposition. The House meeting on May 16 was also stalled due to the protest by the opposition.