Government vs. Opposition Showdown: House of Representatives in Limbo

The meeting between the ruling party and the opposition party, held to end the deadlock in the House of Representatives meeting, concluded without reaching an agreement.

Speaker Devraj Ghimire’s press adviser, Shekhar Adhikari, announced that the House of Representatives meeting has been adjourned until 3 o’clock tomorrow, as there was no consensus on the conduct of the meeting.

The primary reason for the obstruction in both houses of the federal parliament has been the main opposition party, CPN-UML’s demand for the formation of a high-level panel to investigate the recent gold smuggling case. The obstruction by CPN-UML has been ongoing since July 26.

On the other hand, the ruling government has maintained that an investigation committee is unnecessary, as the police are already carrying out a thorough investigation into the gold smuggling case.

In an attempt to reopen the parliament and break the deadlock, Speaker Devraj Ghimire initiated discussions in the morning between the Prime Minister, leaders of the ruling party, and main opposition party leaders at Singha Durbar.

After no agreement was reached during the discussions at Singha Durbar, the top leaders, including the Prime Minister, reconvened for further discussions at New Baneshwar after 3:30 pm.

Despite rescheduling the Parliament meeting for 4 o’clock, the leaders were unable to find common ground by 5 o’clock in the evening, leading to the adjournment of the House of Representatives meeting until tomorrow.