Around three dozen bills remain pending at Parliament as the winter session, also called bill session, ended without giving due consideration to them.

Of the 68 bills registered in the Legislature-Parliament after the second Constituent Assembly, only 25 were approved in the last two years, according to records at Department of Bill under the Parliament Secretariat.

Several bills, which were registered in Parliament in 2014, are still under consideration. Five bills meant to replace Muluki Ain, Amendment Bill on Education Act, Amendment in Local Self Governance Act are among the important bills pending in the House. There has not been proper discussion on the bills as Parliament did not have long meetings. There has been problem in adopting new education policy which envisions for free and compulsory education among others in the lack of endorsement by Parliament.

Although Parliament lasted for 139 days since the promulgation of Constitution of Nepal, it hardly worked for 37 hours and 15 minutes while holding 44 meetings in 41 working days. Each Parliament meeting lasted just around 55 minutes on average with the majority of time being spent in zero and special hours, where lawmakers talked about concerns about their constituencies. A report released by the Parliament Secretariat on the final day of the winter session highlights elections of President, Prime Minister, Speaker and Deputy Speaker as per the provision of the Constitution of Nepal.

The first session of Parliament after the promulgation of the constitution ended on February 18 as the Nepali Congress lawmakers remained absent due to the party’s upcoming general convention.

Speaker Onshari Gharti told a press conference in Dang last week that the next session of Parliament would solely focus on discussion and endorsement of the bills. “All the pending bills will be cleared in the next session,” she said. The next session, according to Parliament Secretariat, will be called after the NC’s convention which is set to conclude on March 6.