Concluding weeks of discussion, political parties have agreed not to suspend the members of parliament unless they are convicted by the court in criminal offences.

The draft regulation for the House of Representatives (HoR) was delayed by differences between the ruling and opposition parties over whether to suspend the MPs who are remanded in judicial custody on criminal charges.

Following reservations from the opposition parties, there has been an agreement for no suspension of lawmakers as they face judicial custody before the final verdict. However, they will be denied state facilities and stripped of authority while in custody. Representatives of the Nepali Congress, the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal and the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal on the Regulation Drafting Committee had been objecting to planned suspension before the court’s final verdict.

“The regulations will be tabled in the House on Sunday,” said Juli Kumari Mahato, a UML member of the committee. The budget session of Parliament commences on Sunday. The regulations guide the HoR business and set rules for forming parliamentary committees.

NC lawmakers, however, had registered their note of dissent on the draft, which will be discussed in the HoR before endorsement on Thursday, over the number of committees. The opposition party has been objecting to the plan of the ruling parties to increase the number of committees to 10. The NC had been demanding to limit it to seven as recommended by the Parliament-Secretariat.

“We tried to find a meeting point on nine but the NC wasn’t ready,” said Mahato. The governing parties argue that the Secretariat suggested seven House committees assuming that there would be 15 ministries. Now the number has increased to 21 so the House committees should also be more. Mahato said having more committees would also end the practice of forming one or more subcommittees under them. Each committee will have around 27 members.