Kathmandu, April 1

The ongoing session of the Parliament is likely to end after three to four meetings.

Spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat Bharat Raj Gautam said the Lower House was expected to take a call on two ordinances -- Election for the National Assembly Ordinance and Medical Education Ordinance. Besides that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli will address the House before embarking on a state visit to India on April 6, he added. “The Parliament session will end after dealing with these businesses,” he said and added that the joint session of the Parliament would end simultaneously.

Gautam said the budget session of the Parliament would start after a month, as the government would have to bring budget on May 29 as per the constitutional provision.

Before presenting the budget, the government will bring its policy and programmes, which will be debated in the Parliament.

Assistant Spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat Dilli Ram Rijal said the Lower House had only one agenda for tomorrow. The House will be adjourned after condoling the death of former lawmaker and Nepali Congress leader Khum Bahadur Khadka.

A parliamentary committee headed by CPN-UML lawmaker Krishna Bhakta Pokharel said the committee would finalise the draft of parliamentary rules after the next meeting, possibly tomorrow. He said the committee had finalised rules governing the process whereby lawmakers would pose questions to the prime minister and ministers, who would answer those questions in the House itself.

As per the new rules, the PM will answer lawmakers’ queries in the first and the third weeks of every month. He added that the line minister would have to answer lawmakers’ questions raised during zero and special hours. Pokharel said the committee was also incorporating provisions whereby line ministers would have to answer questions of lawmakers before a scheduled debate on particular agenda began in the House.

Lawmakers can ask questions in written format, with the concerned ministers obliged to answer in written format.  The question-answer session will last for an hour.

“All these provisions are being introduced in the draft with a view to making the government accountable to people’s representatives,” Pokharel said, adding, “When a people’s representative raises an issue in the House, the government must offer its views on the matter.”

“In the past, lawmakers would ask questions but ministers were not obliged to answer them. This should end,” Pokharel argued.

He said the Parliament Secretariat would have to reschedule the parliamentary meeting if it was delayed by more than two hours. “In the past lawmakers had to wait for hours to start meetings of the Parliament. We want to end this uncertainty,” Pokharel added.