Kathmandu, May 17

The major political parties have yet to decide what to do with the constitution amendment bill in the Parliament meeting called for tomorrow.

For this reason, the Parliament Secretariat today didn’t publish its tentative business schedule, which is normally published a day in advance.

Parliament Secretariat Spokesperson Bharat Raj Gautam said the secretariat could not publish business schedule because the political leaders had yet to forge consensus on whether or not to proceed with the amendment bill. The House meeting scheduled for May 7 was supposed to put the constitution amendment bill to vote but that didn’t happen, as Rastriya Prajatantra Party quit the government.

Lawmakers have registered over 50 proposals to amend the bill. The ruling Nepali Congress and CPN-Maoist Centre have also registered a proposal to revise some clauses of the bill as per an agreement between the government and the agitating Rastriya Janata Party Nepal and constituents of the Federal Alliance.

The main opposition party, CPN-UML, has been opposing the constitution amendment bill and ruling parties’ amendment proposal on the bill.

UML Standing Committee meeting today decided to stick to the party’s previous stand on the amendment issue. This means it wants the government to withdraw the bill. The meeting also urged the government to withdraw the impeachment motion registered in the House against Chief Justice Sushila Karki.

A source said there was a possibility that the speaker could prorogue the House. “If the House is prorogued, the new session of the Parliament will be called after one or two days. According to legal provisions, the government can present its policy and programmes and new fiscal budget only in the new session of the Parliament,” the source said.