Thursday's scheduled meeting of the House of Representatives has been postponed until 1pm Friday, as per the request of the government.

The House meeting was deferred just after the Business Advisory Committee decided to start deliberations on the Millenium Challenge Corporation-Nepal Compact from Thursday.

“The meeting was postponed until Friday following the request from the prime minister,” Gopal Nath Yogi, secretary at the House of Representatives, told the Post. “The request came after the Business Advisory Committee decided to proceed with deliberations.”

Earlier on Thursday, the Business Advisory Committee meeting decided to commence deliberations on the Millennium Challenge Corporation-Nepal Compact in the House of Representatives.

Lawmakers willing to take part in the deliberations will put their views in the $500 million American grant.

The MCC compact was tabled in the lower house on Sunday, 32 months after it was registered in Parliament in July 2019.

“The committee has decided to start theoretical deliberations on MCC from Thursday,” said Jeevan Ram Shrestha, chief whip of CPN (Unified Socialist) . “After theoretical discussions, clause-wise discussions will be held on the agreement.”

According to Shrestha, his party has decided to take part in the discussions.

“It is still unclear when the voting on MCC will take place,” Shrestha told the Post.

The CPN (Unified Socialist) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), two coalition partners in the Sher Bahadur Deuba government, are opposed to MCC’s ratification from Parliament.

As per the Business Advisory Committee’s decision, Speaker Agni Spakota will allow individual lawmakers, whoever wants to participate in the deliberations, to present their views and concerns on the MCC compact.

How long the theoretical discussions will last will depend on the number of lawmakers willing to participate in the deliberations.

The tentative list of agenda for Thursday's meeting included the MCC compact, saying it would be presented for deliberations by Minister for Finance Janardan Sharma as a line minister. However, it will now be presented by Minister for Communist and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, as Sharma is out of station.

Sharma was absent at Sunday’s House meeting as well, and Karki had tabled the compact.

Rekha Sharma, a Maoist Centre representative in the Business Advisory Committee, said her party was of the view that deliberations shouldn’t start until the House obstruction by the main opposition CPN-UML is lifted.

“This is a matter of serious public concern. We said that deliberations must not begin until there is an environment for all the interested lawmakers to put forth their views,” she told the Post. “However, there was an agreement to start the deliberations.”

The main opposition UML has stuck to its position to continue House obstructions. It remained absent from the Business Advisory Committee meeting.