Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called an all-party meeting for 4pm Sunday.

A minister said all parties represented in the Parliament have been invited for the meeting.

The meeting comes amid the government’s preparation to table the Millenium Challenge Corporation, which has become a heavily divisive political issue, in the House.

“A host of issues are, including House obstruction, the MCC, pending bills, are on the agenda,” Bal Krishna Khand, minister for home affairs, told the Post.

Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal during a meeting with Deuba on Friday had suggested that the prime minister call an all-party meeting before tabling the MCC in the House for its endorsement.

“The party chair [Dahal] suggested that the prime minister call an all party meeting to discuss the MCC before Tuesday's House meeting,” Ramesh Malla, chief personal secretary to Dahal, told the Post on Friday.

The winter session of the House commenced on December 14, but the UML has been obstructing the proceedings.

The UML has vowed not to let the House function in protest against Speaker Agni Sapkota for his non-action on the party's decision to expel as many as 14 of its lawmakers, including Madhav Kumar Nepal.

Nepal later split from the UML and formed a new party—the CPN (Unified Socialist).

The UML has also filed a petition at the Supreme Court against the Speaker’s refusal to act on the party decision and against the Election Commission for registering a new party under Nepal.

The UML was ready to endorse the MCC when it was in power, but it has changed its stance since its chair KP Sharma Oli was thrown out of office as prime minister.

Deuba’s coalition partners—the Maoist Centre, the CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajbadi Party and Rastriya Janamorcha—are against tabling the MCC for its endorsement in its present form. They have been demanding amendments to some clauses of the agreement.

The MCC was signed in September 2017 and has been in Nepal Parliament since July 2019, awaiting approval. Those objecting to the MCC say some of its clauses undermine Nepal’s sovereignty, a claim flatly denied by the MCC headquarters and the American embassy in Kathmandu.

MCC Board of Directors on December 14 held a meeting where the MCC Nepal Compact was one of the agendas.

“MCC Board of Directors received an update and discussed the progress to date of the $500 million Nepal Compact,” the MCC headquarters said in a statement on December 18. “The Board of Directors made note of the commitment by the government of Nepal to seek to ratify the compact in the near term.”

Meanwhile, the main opposition CPN-UML said that it will not participate in the all-party meeting.

“There’s no point in attending the meeting which has been called just for formality,” a senior UML leader told the Post.