House obstruction: Speaker Ghimire to meet senior leaders on Monday

KATHMANDU: Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire is preparing to hold a discussion with senior leaders of major political parties on Monday to find a way out to obstruction of House proceedings. Ghimire is scheduled to meet the senior leaders at 12 noon.

The opposition parties have been disrupting the House proceedings, insisting on the formation of a high-level inquiry committee to investigate the 100 kg gold smuggling case.

Speaker Ghimire held a discussion with the whips of different political parties in an attempt to break the deadlock. However, as no consensus was reached during the meeting, Speaker Ghimire chose to confer with the senior leaders.

During the meeting, whips from the ruling parties reiterated Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s statement that a separate committee to investigate the case was unnecessary. On the other hand, the opposition parties remained firm in their stance, asserting that the incident necessitated the formation of a high-level inquiry committee, as the existing mechanism was inadequate to conduct the probe.

Chief Whip of Nepali Congress Ramesh Lekhak, CPN-UML MP Leelanath Shrestha, Chief Whip of Rastriya Swatantra Party Santosh Pariyar, Chief Whip of Janata Samajbadi Nepal Pradeep Yadav, and Chief Whip of Rashtriya Prajatantra Party Gyanendra Shahi participated in the discussion.