A weeks-long deadlock in the House of Representatives persists as the ruling and opposition parties remain at odds over probing the visit visa scam by Parliament.

Starting May 27, the opposition parties have been obstructing the parliamentary proceedings, demanding the constitution of the probe panel, followed by Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak’s resignation.

Most parties from the opposition bloc have softened their stance on the minister’s resignation, but have not budged from their demand for an investigation panel—either parliamentary or a judicial one led by a retired judge.

The ruling parties, however, have opposed the formation of any probe panel and are pushing to unconditionally allow Lekhak to clarify the allegations against him. Prior to the meeting called for 1 pm Sunday, Speaker Devraj Ghimire held discussions with chief whips and whips of the three major parties.

Ghimire expressed dissatisfaction over the continued obstruction. The Speaker, according to his press adviser Shekhar Adhikari, reminded them of the consequences of the delay in budget discussion.

Though the House has finalised its calendar with the budget discussion slated to begin on Tuesday, it has not been implemented due to the obstruction. With no agreement in the meeting called by the Speaker, the House was postponed until 3:15 pm and then to 5:30 in the evening.

In between, rounds of meetings were held among the opposition parties and then between the Nepali Congress and the CPN (Maoist). The parties decided that the obstruction would be lifted only after the formation of the probe panel. Moist Centre leaders sat with the Congress leaders for a consensus in the probe panel but to no avail.

As per the leaders present in the meeting, the Congress said a parliamentary panel can be formed to look into visit visa issues in totality after the Commission for Investigation on Abuse of Authority (CIAA) wraps up its probe in the recent case. The party, however, refused the idea of investigating Lekhak.

Talking to the media after the meeting, Maoist Centre chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal said the discussions had been positive. Earlier in the meeting, he had met Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba to find a meeting point.

“We are still in a discussion. We will find a way out,” he said. Amid the differences, Ghimire held the meeting at 6 pm but talks have been postponed until Monday as the opposition parties resorted to the obstruction.

On May 22, the CIAA raided the Tribhuvan International Airport Immigration Office following complaints of visit visa manipulation. Lekhak has been dragged into a controversy after the constitutional anti-graft body detained the chief of the immigration office, Tirtharaj Bhattarai, who is a joint-secretary under the home ministry, and seized vital documents.

Following Bhattarai’s arrest, the anti-graft body has also begun investigating staff from the home minister’s secretariat, raising questions about Lekhak’s moral responsibility in the case.

Bhattarai was taken into CIAA custody a day after being transferred from the airport to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The anti-graft body claims to have uncovered evidence indicating that individuals were sent abroad on visit visas in exchange for large sums of money, in collusion with Bhattarai. Joint-secretary Bhattarai’s transfer to the home ministry while he was under investigation has fuelled suspicions of higher authorities’ involvement in the scam.

Lekhak, however, has denied the allegations, questioning how he can be held responsible for an act he never committed. The minister argues that there is no point demanding his resignation when there is no complaint against him and no agency is investigating him.