KATHMANDU: The deadlock in Nepal’s House of Representatives continues despite efforts to reach a political consensus over the ongoing visit visa scandal.
Friday’s parliamentary meeting began late due to ongoing internal and cross-party consultations aimed at resolving differences between the ruling coalition and opposition parties.
The session, originally rescheduled for 3:15 PM, eventually began around 4:45 PM. The delay followed Thursday’s adjournment by Speaker Devraj Ghimire, who had initially called the meeting for 1 PM.
However, despite the session commencing, it failed to move forward due to obstructions from the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP). Both parties objected to the Speaker’s decision to allow the CPN (Maoist Centre)to speak during the session.
The Maoist Centre, which had previously demanded the resignation of Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak, has since aligned with the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML in a new agreement that excludes both a resignation and the formation of a parliamentary probe committee.
Speaker Ghimire had invited Maoist Chief Whip Hit Raj Pandey to speak at the start of the meeting. But this move triggered strong protests from the RSP and RPP, whose members stood up from their seats in opposition, reflecting their continued dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the visa corruption case and the recent three-party agreement.
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