The meeting of the House of Representatives has been adjourned until Sunday following obstruction from the Nepali Congress.

Congress lawmakers stood from their respective seats soon after Speaker Devraj Ghimire tried to steer the meeting to agendas set for today. The meeting scheduled for 11am had started with a delay of one and a half hours.

Speaker Ghimire repeatedly asked the protesting lawmakers to take their seats. After lawmakers continued protesting, the Speaker adjourned the meeting until 11am on Sunday.

The main opposition has been continuously obstructing the House of Representatives proceedings since the first day of the budget session that commenced on May 10, demanding a parliamentary probe into Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane’s alleged involvement in cooperative fraud.

The opposition and ruling parties have reached a consensus to form a parliamentary committee to investigate cooperative frauds. However, they are currently at loggerheads over the term of reference of the House panel. The members of a task force assigned to formulate the ToR are divided on whether to include Lamichhane’s name while defining the proposed committee’s jurisdiction.

The government was preparing to get the policies and programmes endorsed during Friday’s meeting, which is a prerequisite before Finance Minister Barshaman Pun presents the government’s annual budget that must be unveiled by Tuesday.

However, if Congress continues its protest, the government may opt to bring the budget through ordinance instead of presenting budget-related bills in Parliament.