Contrary to the claim of the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government and the ruling parties that the ongoing session of Parliament would be effective, the meeting of the House of Representatives on Thursday was adjourned without entering the agenda for the lack of quorum.

Records of lawmakers’ attendance on the day from the Parliament Secretariat show 205 members were present in the House initially. However, most of them left the meeting after registering their attendance. As a result, only 65 lawmakers were left by the time Rekha Sharma, the minister for communications and information technology, appeared to table the bill to amend the Political Parties Act.

Article 94 of the Constitution of Nepal sets one fourth as the quorum for both chambers of the federal parliament. At least 69 members must be present in the 275-strong House to table any bills or proposals in a meeting. In the lack of the minimum number of lawmakers, Speaker Devraj Ghimire adjourned the meeting until Friday.

“The bill couldn’t be presented due to the lack of quorum. Though 205 lawmakers had registered their attendance earlier in the day, only 65 were in the hall,” Ek Ram Giri, spokesperson at the secretariat, told the Post. Attendance is a must for the lawmakers to claim meeting and transportation allowances.

The government and Parliament leadership were cricitised for turning the legislature ineffective as the federal lawmaking body has so far endorsed only one bill, besides the mandatory budget-related bills, ever since the House convened in January last year following the November 2022 elections.

Leaders from the ruling parties claimed that they were working hard to provide a maximum number of bills and get them through the ongoing session that began on February 5. Despite the claims, the House proceedings aren’t in top priority for lawmakers as was demonstrated by the lack of quorum on Thursday.

Experts say Parliament is the place where people’s representatives hold the executive accountable. In the same manner, lawmakers must also demonstrate they are accountable to the people by actively participating in the House procedure.

“The lawmakers must understand that voters are watching them. Skipping the House meetings is deceiving the people,” Rajendra Phuyal, a former secretary of the National Assembly, told the Post. “Raising people’s voices and actively participating in the lawmaking process is the dual responsibility of lawmakers.”

The winter session, also called the bill session, has barely two months to go. Various ministries are said to be working on 109 bills. If the claim by the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs is anything to go by, 35 of them will be registered in the Parliament shortly. Around two dozen bills are under consideration in both the Houses combined.

It is a constitutional obligation to present the national budget on Jestha 15 (May 28 this year). As the pre-budget discussions need to be concluded 15 days prior to the presentation of the fiscal budget for 2024-25, deliberations have to commence by May 7. Rule 145 of the House regulations says pre-budget discussions must be completed 15 days before the budget presentation. That means pre-budget discussions must conclude by May 13 so that the budget can be presented on the constitutional date.

The ongoing session must be prorogued before calling the budget session by the first week of May. Phuyal says the way the House is functioning gives ample room to doubt that it is going to be productive.

“As the bills are presented by the government, it is the primary responsibility of the ruling parties to ensure the House functions smoothly,” said Phuyal. The seven-party ruling alliance commands the support of 167 lawmakers.

Ruling party leaders agree that they have failed to ensure the presence of lawmakers in the House. Rupa Soshi Chaudhari, the CPN (Maoist Centre) whip, said the ongoing Mahasamiti meeting of the Nepali Congress was the primary reason for the low attendance on Thursday.

“I agree it was our responsibility to ensure that the House functions smoothly,” she told the Post. “As we have to make optimum use of this session to pass as many bills as possible, we will not repeat this situation this time.”

The bills will be presented on Friday, according to Chaudhari.

Speaker Ghimire also has directed the government to inform the House of the probe report on the Balkumari incident of December 29 that took the lives of two youths. Opposition parties have been demanding the ouster of Prakash Jwala, the minister for physical infrastructure and transport, claiming that the probe implicates him in the incident.