KATHMANDU: The House of Representatives has once again been obstructed, marking the seventh consecutive day of disruption due to protests by opposition parties.
Wednesday’s meeting, initially scheduled for 1 PM, was postponed to 3:15 PM in an effort to build consensus. However, the session began nearly half an hour late and was immediately disrupted by opposition lawmakers. Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire urged all parties to help restore order in the House, asking them to express their views along party lines before proceeding with the agenda. Despite his appeal, opposition MPs continued chanting slogans, leading the Speaker to adjourn the session until 3 PM on Thursday.
The House has remained paralyzed for the past nine days after Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak was linked to a controversy involving visit visas. The issue gained traction after Tirtha Raj Bhattarai, the chief of the Department of Immigration, was caught by the anti-graft body. Following this, Home Minister Lekhak came under pressure to resign, even from within his own party, with some Congress leaders urging him to step down on moral grounds.
Lekhak, however, has expressed his intent to respond to the allegations in Parliament. He had requested time to speak during the May 27 session, but the meeting could not proceed due to the opposition’s obstruction. The next day’s session on May 28 was also blocked.
Opposition parties allowed Parliament to function only on May 29 to facilitate the presentation of the new fiscal year’s budget. Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel presented the budget during a joint session of both houses of the Federal Parliament. The Speaker then scheduled the next meeting for June 3, but sessions have since been disrupted daily through June 10 .
Notably, under the previous government led by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the then-main opposition Nepali Congress had disrupted 22 parliamentary meetings over a two-month period, demanding a parliamentary committee to probe a cooperative fraud case.
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