• HOUSE DEADLOCK
KATHMANDU, JANUARY 8
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today met CPN- UML Chair KP Sharma Oli at the latter's residence and urged him to end the deadlock in the Parliament.
UML lawmakers have been obstructing proceedings in both houses of the Parliament over Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota's alleged bias against their party.
The UML has accused Speaker Sapkota of not acting fairly by refusing to confirm the expulsion of 14 UML lawmakers, including Madhav Kumar Nepal, who later split the party and formed the CPN (Unified Socialist).
According to PM Deuba's Press Adviser Govinda Pariyar, the PM asked Oli to end the deadlock in the Parliament, saying, if he had any grudge against anybody, his party should put it forth in the House as the Parliament was the place for all parties to express their views. The PM said a deadlocked Parliament was not good for democracy.
Pariyar said Oli raised his points of disagreement, but the meeting was good as the PM and chair of the main opposition had started discussing the House deadlock.
Oli told mediapersons after the meeting that he held good discussions with the PM. Earlier, the UML had boycotted the all-party meetings called by PM Deuba and Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota saying it could not take part in a meeting attended by CPN (US) leaders as that would give legitimacy to the expelled splinter UML group, which had formed the CPN (US).
The speaker has been saying that the case related to the expulsion of UML lawmakers is sub-judice in the Supreme Court, and as per the prevailing law, no sub-judice issue could be debated in the Parliament.
A few days ago, Senior Nepali Congress leader Ramchandra Paudel had met Oli and requested him to end the House deadlock saying that prolonged obstruction of House proceedings could lead to derailment of the current political system.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 9, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
