ATHMANDU: Speaker Dol Prasad Aryal met Prime Minister Balendra Shah at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in Singha Durbar on Tuesday morning, urging him to attend Parliament and respond to questions raised by opposition lawmakers.
The meeting between Shah and Aryal lasted around 45 minutes. During the meeting, Speaker Aryal told the Prime Minister that it had become difficult to run the House amid continued obstruction by opposition parties and urged him to appear in Parliament and respond to lawmakers’ questions.
Aryal reminded Shah that the parliamentary regulations provide for a regular question-and-answer session with the Prime Minister once a month, as well as the Prime Minister’s address on contemporary issues.
He also stressed the need for the Prime Minister to remain accountable to Parliament.
According to a source, when the Speaker urged Shah to stand in Parliament and respond to questions from the opposition, the Prime Minister replied that he would “consider” the matter.
“The Speaker told the Prime Minister that the opposition has been continuously obstructing the House and that he should come to Parliament and speak once,” a senior Rastriya Swatantra Party leader said. “The Speaker has fulfilled his responsibility by trying to address the obstruction. Now it is the Prime Minister’s turn to fulfil his responsibility.”
The two also discussed issues related to the ongoing budget session, pending bills and contemporary matters raised in the House.
Aryal told the Prime Minister that he had approached him based on parliamentary rules and policies and urged him to attend the House.
“It has become difficult to run the House as the opposition continues to obstruct it. How can this be resolved?” Aryal said. “We need to proceed according to the policies and rules. As the House remains obstructed, issues concerning the people have been left out and pending.”
However, Shah did not give the Speaker a firm assurance that he would attend Parliament.
A member of the Speaker’s Secretariat said there was still no guarantee that the Prime Minister would appear in the House.
“The meeting between the Speaker and Prime Minister is a regular one. The Speaker conveyed the issues raised in the House to the Prime Minister,” the official said. “There must have been serious discussion about the questions raised by the opposition.”
Speaker under pressure
The Speaker has recently faced criticism from opposition parties for failing to issue a ruling compelling the Prime Minister to appear before Parliament.
On May 31, Prime Minister Shah had appeared in the House and made a controversial statement concerning Nepal’s territorial dispute with India. He said that he had only learned after becoming Prime Minister that Nepal had also encroached on Indian territory.
Opposition parties have been continuously obstructing Parliament in protest against the remarks.
With the House repeatedly disrupted, opposition lawmakers have also accused the Speaker of failing to take effective measures to make the Prime Minister accountable to Parliament.
The Speaker has been under increasing pressure over his role. Since May, as the House has repeatedly been obstructed, Aryal has adjourned meetings several times and invited leaders from both the opposition and ruling parties for discussions.
However, opposition parties have maintained that they will continue obstructing the House until the Prime Minister responds to their demands.
Parliamentary affairs expert Haribahadur Thapa also said the Speaker had not played a sufficiently effective role in resolving the obstruction.
Thapa suggested that the Speaker should convene an all-party meeting involving all parties represented in Parliament along with the Law Minister.
“There is room to question the Speaker’s role because he should have seriously convened an all-party meeting over the obstruction,” Thapa said. “The Law Minister and all parties represented in the House should have been invited. The Speaker should also have used the chief whip and whip of the ruling party to communicate the matter to the government.”
Thapa also noted that the established practice was for the Prime Minister to meet the Speaker at the Federal Parliament Secretariat rather than for the Speaker to go directly to the Prime Minister’s office.
Aryal, who was elected Speaker from the ruling Rastriya Swatantra Party, has met Shah several times over the issue of resuming parliamentary proceedings. However, Shah has not yet visited the Speaker’s office for such discussions.
The Speaker and Prime Minister had previously held discussions at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers over ways to end the parliamentary obstruction.
Meanwhile, ruling-party lawmakers have also begun pressing the Prime Minister to address the situation.
Some lawmakers from the ruling party have expressed dissatisfaction with Shah’s reluctance to appear in Parliament despite the Speaker repeatedly urging him to remain accountable to the House.
Discontent among ruling-party leaders over the Prime Minister’s role has also been growing, with ruling-party lawmakers sharply criticising Shah’s working style during parliamentary meetings in recent days.
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