Former Prime Minister and CPN (Unified Socialist) chair Madhav Kumar Nepal, who has been undergoing treatment for pneumonia at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, will be discharged on Friday.

Doctors at the hospital who have been attending to him said that his health condition has been improving and they will discharge him after 72 hours of the admission.

“We will discharge the former Prime Minister Nepal tomorrow [Friday],” Dr Santa Kumar Das, deputy director at the hospital who has been supervising Nepal’s treatment, told the Post.

Nepal was admitted at the hospital on Tuesday. Although the leader is yet to be discharged from the hospital, he went to the parliament building at Baneshwar on Thursday afternoon and took the oath of office and secrecy as a member of parliament.

“We allowed him to go to the Parliament building to take oath, but have not discharged him yet. He will return to hospital,” said Das.

Doctors said they have provided Nepal with antibiotics and other medicines.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Maoist Centre) chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal visited Nepal at the hospital on Wednesday and took an update on his health with the doctors.

Meetings of the ruling alliance have been affected due to the hospitalisation of the chief of the Unified Socialist, which is one of the partners of the ruling coalition. Parties of the alliance—Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Centre), Unified Socialist and Rastriya Janamorcha—are under pressure to agree on the leadership and formation of a new government as deadline given by the President Bidya Devi Bhandari to form a new government expires on Sunday.

Since the Congress, which leads the coalition, has elected party president Sher Bahadur Deuba as its parliamentary party leader, the alliance partners now want to expedite the process of government formation and agree on the prime ministerial candidate and the overall power sharing in the new government.

Ashesh Ghimire, central committee member of Unified Socialist, said that his party leaders are preparing to join the inter party talks once party chief Nepal is discharged from the hospital on Friday.

“From Friday, Nepal will lead our party’s negotiation team, which includes former Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal and party general secretary Beduram Bhusal,” Ghimire told the Post. “Other leaders in our party are preparing to expedite the talks as the Congress, too, has elected its parliamentary party leader.”