As Legislature-Parliament meeting lingers without adequate business to perform, the Parliament Secretariat is pressing political parties for ending the current session. The ongoing budget or monsoon session of Parliament, which began on May 3, 2016, has been going on with no major works to show off as the government has not given proper business to it.

A House meeting has been called for Friday after a two-week recess.

Speaker Onasari Gharti said that she was consulting with parties for an agreement to end the current session soon. Talking to the media after her return from the Inter Parliamentary Union Assembly in Dhaka on Thursday, she said there is no point prolonging the session in the lack of adequate business to perform. “The House is waiting for a consensus among the parties for the prorogation,” Gharti said, hinting at a swift agreement among the parties on the matter.

As per the parliamentary practice, generally two sessions are called in a year—the budget session mainly to endorse national budget and winter session to enact laws. However, no winter session was called this year in the lack of prorogation of the budget session. As it is necessary to call another session before May 29 to present the annual budget for fiscal year 2017/18, the current session needs to be ended soon.

Chief Whip of the ruling CPN (Maoist Centre) Tek Bahadur Basnet said the government had been planning to end the session for a few months, but the ongoing political uncertainty forced its continuation. The constitution amendment bill that is languishing in Parliament is the main reason behind indecisiveness, he pointed out, saying:“There aren’t many differences among the parties on the issue. I guess we reach to the decision very soon.”

According to Basnet, the decision on whether to end or continue the House session will depend on the amendment bill. “The House session will come to a close if there’s a chance immediately and called immediately in case of positive development. Though the House has yet to endorse 98 Acts needed for a full-fledged implementation of the constitution, it is without adequate business. Only 40 out of the 138 Acts have been endorsed in the 18 months since the promulgation of the constitution.