Second session of the House of Representatives <\/strong><\/p>\n {{} Santoshi Rawal, Nepal News Bank<\/strong><\/p>\n Kathmandu. The second session of the House of Representatives concluded yesterday. Although the session that started on May 11 lasted for 145 days, the parliament sat for only 62 days. A total of 68 meetings were held during this period. <\/p>\n The parliament, which is entrusted with the responsibility of formulating laws, monitoring the government’s activities and bringing the problems of the people to the main debate of the state, has forwarded some important bills in this session, but questions have been raised about the overall performance. <\/p>\n In the 145-day long session, the House of Representatives has passed 12 bills. Bills including the Finance Bill, Appropriation Bill and Amendment Bill related to the prevention of money laundering have moved forward from this session. <\/p>\n Out of the bills passed <\/p>\n , 11 bills have already been certified by the President. However, many bills registered in the parliament and under discussion are still under consideration in the parliamentary committee. <\/p>\n This raises an important question in Nepal’s parliamentary practice, whether the main job of the parliament is to move the law-making forward at the expected pace. <\/p>\n What is the speed of legislative work? <\/p>\n When evaluating the performance of Parliament, the basis of how many bills have been passed is not sufficient. The quality of the bill, the discussion on it, the committee process, the consultation with the stakeholders and the possibility of implementing the law should also be looked at. <\/p>\n However, the passage of only a limited number of bills during the long-running session and the fact that many more bills are pending in the committee indicates the slowness in the legislative process. <\/p>\n Parliamentary Committees In order to make laws, the committee is responsible for discussing the bills presented in the House in detail, making necessary amendments and incorporating the views of the stakeholders. Therefore, the presence of a bill in the committee is not the only negative issue. But if the committee discussions remain inconclusive for a long time, the meetings become controversial or the process is affected due to political interests, it raises questions about the effectiveness of the Parliament. <\/p>\n In the view of legal expert Adhikari, the parliament<\/strong><\/p>\n Senior legal expert Dr. Bipin Adhikari has said that the parliament has not fully utilized its capacity. <\/p>\n In a telephone conversation with Nepal News Bank, he said that the capacity of the parliament has not been fully utilized. According to him, along with the issue of law-making, issues related to the legitimacy and institutional dignity of the parliament were also raised prominently in this session. <\/p>\n “The capacity of the parliament has not been fully utilized,” the official said, “Most of the issues of legitimacy were raised in this session.” There were controversies regarding the Speaker, questions were raised about the government, the Prime Minister did not cooperate or was not present, he was reluctant to speak and the ‘Zero Time’ of the Parliament was also affected. According to him, the role of the Prime Minister has also affected the functioning of the ministers. This has brought the issue of coordination and accountability between the Parliament and the government to the debate. <\/p>\n Both the ruling party and the opposition are responsible <\/strong><\/p>\n It is a normal practice of democratic system to have differences between the government and the opposition in the parliament. It is the responsibility of the opposition to question the performance of the government, while it is the responsibility of the government to answer the questions of the opposition. But if this political conflict becomes a hindrance in the regular functioning of the parliament, it has a direct impact on the legislative process. <\/p>\n Dr. Adhikari has said that the problems seen in the parliament should not be seen only as the weakness of the ruling party. <\/p>\n He said, “It seems that the problem is caused by some knowledgeable and experienced people. This is not only the weakness of the ruling party but also of the opposition.” “<\/p>\n Is the parliament really effective as an assembly of people’s representatives? This serious question is being raised at the civic level,” said Adhikari. <\/p>\n Disaster and citizens’ issues are also in the interest of the parliament<\/strong><\/p>\n Along with the formulation of laws, the issues of floods, landslides, disaster management, climate change and rescue and relief of the affected citizens also got important place in the parliament. <\/p>\n The recent incidents of floods, landslides, inundation and other disasters that Nepal has been experiencing seem to have drawn the attention of the parliament to disaster management.<\/p>\n There is a need to look at the long-term policy of disaster risk reduction, preparedness, early warning system and the increasing risk due to climate change, not only after the disaster rescue and relief. In this sense, the parliament should be active not only as a place to make laws but also as an institution to discuss the immediate problems of the citizens and the long-term policies of the state. <\/p>\n ‘There is no need to be disappointed’ <\/strong><\/p>\n Although questions have been raised on the performance of the parliament, Dr. Adhikari has said that there is no need to be disappointed right now. <\/p>\n According to him, enough bills have been registered in the parliament. Work is being done and parliamentary committee meetings are also being held. However, he said that some of the meetings of the committee have become controversial and both the ruling and opposition parties are in trouble due to the presentation of the issue in an immature manner. <\/p>\n This highlights another aspect of parliamentary practice. The effectiveness of Parliament is not determined by the number of votes in the House and the number of bills passed. It is equally important how active the committee is, how serious the thematic discussions are, how accountable the committee is to the government, and how effectively the suggestions of the committees are incorporated into the law. <\/p>\n Role of Speaker and Top Leader <\/strong><\/p>\n After the end of the session, the debate on the future course of action of the parliament has also started. Dr. Adhikari has pointed out the need to make the Business Advisory Committee led by the Speaker more effective. <\/p>\n He said, “Now the Business Advisory Committee led by the Speaker should be made more effective.” According to him, the time has come for the top political leadership to sit together and have a serious discussion on how to protect the dignity of democracy. Although the competition between the ruling party and the opposition in the parliament is natural, the activities that undermine the institutional dignity of the parliament can ultimately affect the citizens’ trust in the democratic system. Therefore, the challenge of balancing political competition with the regular functioning of the parliament will be even more important in the days to come. <\/p>\n The question of the institution rather than the question of <\/strong><\/p>\n is not a new issue in Nepali politics. Differences between the majority and the minority in the parliament are a natural process of democracy. But if every issue is seen only as a political competition of victory and defeat, the main purpose of the parliament can be overlooked. <\/p>\n Constitutional expert Dr. Adhikari has also emphasized this aspect. “The game of who will win and who will lose here has become old,” he said, “If the level of public representative remains the same, then why do we need democracy? This question has already started to arise at the civic level. This statement has raised serious questions about the future role of the parliament. The main purpose of the people’s representatives reaching the parliament is not only to show political power, but also to raise the problems of the people, to make the government accountable and to make necessary laws. <\/p>\n Therefore, while evaluating the second session, along with the fact that 12 bills were passed, the discussion that took place during the formulation of these bills, the role of the committees, the political deadlock seen in the parliament and the space given to the citizens’ issues should also be looked at simultaneously. <\/p>\n The challenge of the next session <\/strong><\/p>\n The challenge now is not only to move forward with the remaining bills, but also to make the working style of the parliament more systematic and effective. The main challenges of the upcoming session can be to end the situation of bills being stuck in the committee for a long time, to make the committees active on the subject, to reduce unnecessary obstacles in the parliament and to create an environment of dialogue between the government and the opposition. <\/p>\n Parliament is not just a place to oppose or support the government. It is a constitutional institution to institutionalize the voice of the citizens, discuss the policies and laws of the state, and make the executive accountable. <\/p>\n The second session has laid the groundwork for some important legislation. But this session has also raised questions about the institutional efficacy of the parliament, political culture and the responsibilities of the people’s representatives. <\/p>\n Now those questions will have to be answered by the working style of the next session. In other words, the success of the parliament will be determined not only by the number of bills, but also by how responsible, effective and accountable the role of the legislature and the public has been played. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Second session of the House of Representatives {{} Santoshi Rawal, Nepal News Bank Kathmandu. The second session of the House of Representatives concluded yesterday. Although the session that started on May 11 lasted for 145 days, the parliament sat for only 62 days. A total of 68 meetings were held during this period. The parliament,Continue reading “Second session of House of Representatives: More time for political confrontation than law-making”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":110127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-samachar-en"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/photo_223853d8.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110154,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110153\/revisions\/110154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/110127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}