Friday's meeting of the House of Representatives lasted more than four hours. Except for discussing the bill to amend the Archive Preservation Act for half an hour, lawmakers raised a wide range of issues the whole time.

There are emergency time, special time and zero hour in Parliament for the lawmakers to raise the issues of public concern and to comment on the government’s actions in addition to the discussion on the bills. However, ever since January, it is largely holding free discussions because the government hasn’t given enough business.

The government provides business to the House by registering bills. However, three months since its first meeting, the lower house hasn’t endorsed a single bill. The government has registered three bills in the period and they await final discussions.

The first meeting of the House elected through the November 20 polls commenced on January 9. The bills to amend the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act, and the Constitutional Council Act, and the bill to revise Anti Money Laundering Act were registered by the incumbent Pushpa Kamal Dahal government.

“The House doesn’t have business because the government has failed to register enough bills,” Padam Giri, the CPN-UML chief whip, told the Post. In addition to three bills the government registered, there are five others dispatched from the National Assembly for the House to decide.

The opposition blames the government for rendering the ongoing House session fruitless by not giving it work. In the 19 meetings so far, discussions on bills have been held for less than a third of the total time. “It’s not true that we have no business. However, it would have been better if there were more bills,” Ek Ram Giri, spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat, told the Post. Election of the Speaker and deputy Speaker, voting on the trust motion of Prime Minister Dahal twice and the endorsement of its regulation are the major achievements of the lower house so far.

Though the House on Sunday endorsed its regulation after resolving the differences, it is yet to constitute thematic committees. The committees, also known as mini-parliament, are necessary for detailed discussions on the bills and keeping the activities of the ministries and the government agencies under scrutiny.

Minister for Information and Communication Technology Rekha Sharma, who also is the government spokesperson, said preparations are ongoing to register new bills soon. “I don’t think the House of Representatives doesn’t have business. However, I agree more bills could have been registered by now,” she told the Post. “Preparations are final to register a federal civil service bill.”

Officials at the secretariat say they have got a hint that the ongoing session will not last long. Sharma said the government wants the bills to amend the transitional justice Act and Constitutional Council Act endorsed before proroguing the ongoing session of Parliament.

“This session cannot go too long because the budget session needs to be called next month. However, the government wants the two bills endorsed first,” said Sharma. The ongoing session needs to be prorogued to call the budget session. The constitution makes it mandatory to present the budget on May 29 and the budget session must be called at least two weeks prior for pre-budget discussions and to endorse the government's policies and programmes.