The ruling and opposition parties have failed to agree on whether to form a parliamentary panel to investigate fraud charges against Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Rabi Lamichhane, as they continue to stick to their old stands.

The Nepali Congress has been warning that if the probe panel is not formed, the lower house proceedings will be halted starting the next meeting. However, the ruling parties have opposed such a demand.

Speaker Devraj Ghimire, on Saturday morning, called a meeting of the chief whips and whips of major parties to find a meeting point but there could be no consensus.

Sushila Thing, a Congress whip, told the meeting that her party wants an impartial investigation of the fraud charges, which is not possible without the parliamentary panel. “The police under the Lamichhane-led home ministry cannot fairly investigate the matter,” she said. “Formation of the parliamentary probe panel is a must.”

The Congress, however, is likely to allow the lower house to function on the condition that Lamichhane doesn’t present any bill despite its warning to obstruct the House proceedings so long as the probe panel is not formed. It had also been demanding Lamichhane’s resignation, arguing that it would be a conflict of interest for him to lead the home ministry.

“We are exercising restraint. The party’s office-bearer meeting, called for Sunday, will decide whether to obstruct the House or to allow it to function after we express our demands,” said Thing. Our party, however, will not allow Lamichhane to present any bill.” The next House meeting has been called for Sunday and is scheduled to continue regularly for four days.

The calendar of events in the House has been fixed so that the bill to amend the Political Parties Act will be presented only on April 9, though it was scheduled to be tabled earlier. Lamichhane, as the home minister, presents the bill. The parties believe they can work something out by April 9.

At Saturday’s meeting, leaders from the ruling parties argued that it was illogical to demand the parliamentary panel as the prime minister has already clarified the matter as demanded by the main opposition, the Nepali Congress.

“The prime minister has already presented the facts before the House and the home minister is ready for further clarification if necessary,” said Santosh Pariyar, the Rastriya Swatantra Party chief whip. “What is the point of forming the probe panel when there is no substance in the allegations?”

Following the opposition’s demand, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal appeared before the House on March 19 and rubbished the allegations against his home minister.

He claimed that no probe into the embezzlement of funds by the Pokhara-based Surya Darshan Cooperative has found Lamichhane guilty of wrongdoing. The prime minister further said that police have briefed him that no further investigation is required against Lamichhane.

The Congress, however, was not satisfied with the clarification.

“The Congress’s demand is nothing but a political vendetta,” Mahesh Bartaula, the CPN-UML chief whip, said.

Victims of cooperatives on February 5 had lodged a complaint at the District Police Office, Kaski against three people including Lamichhane, who chairs the Rastriya Swatantra Party. A probe committee launched by the Pokhara Metropolitan City found that over Rs1.35 billion in public deposits at the cooperative was misappropriated. The probe, however, didn’t find Lamichhane’s direct involvement in the case.

Kantipur, the Post’s sister publication, ran a series of stories linking Lamichhane’s involvement in misappropriating a cooperative’s deposits to buy shares of Gorkha Media Network, a media company.

Lamichhane, a former television host and managing director of a television channel co-founded by Gitendra Babu (GB) Rai, has been accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of rupees in collusion with Rai from different cooperatives in Kaski, Chitwan and Butwal.

Rai, who was the chairman of the Gorkha Media Network, the mother company of the channel, is accused of illegally transferring Rs300 million from Kaski-based Surya Darshan Cooperative, Rs110.71 million from Chitwan-based Sahara Cooperative, and Rs 100.74 million from Supreme Cooperative in Butwal, without providing any collateral. Police have issued a diffusion notice against Rai based on the information that he has left the country.

The ruling parties have been claiming that it would be wrong to demand action against someone just based on a complaint without substantial evidence.

When the Congress was still in government, the largest party had objected to the UML’s calls to dismiss three ministers including Mohan Bahadur Basnet, then minister for health and population. Basnet is being investigated by the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority for suspected corruption in the procurement of the Telecommunication Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (Teramocs) for the Nepal Telecommunication Authority.

The anti-graft body, however, didn’t lodge a complaint against Basnet.