All party meeting today: Will it end the ongoing parliament stalemate?

KATHMANDU, December 19: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called an all-party meeting on Sunday. 

According to Govinda Pariyar, a press aide to PM Deuba, the meeting will convene at the prime minister’s official residence in Baluwatar at 4 PM, today. 

Bhanu Deuba, an aide to Deuba, said that the meeting will dwell on the solutions to end the ongoing parliament stalemate. 

The main opposition UML has been obstructing the House meeting since September 8. Though a new session kicked off on Tuesday, the meeting could not enter into normal business owing to the UML obstruction.

UML has been blaming Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota for the latter's ‘biased act’ by not taking action against 14 lawmakers which the party had sacked in August and supporting the split of the party. 

Earlier, Deuba had a meeting with the chairman of CPN (Maoist Center) Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ on Friday morning. 

Two leaders agreed to move ahead after holding discussions with all the political parties over two major issues ---- prolonged House obstruction by the CPN-UML and the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a United States government program. 

Meanwhile, the government is reportedly preparing to table the MCC in the House meeting. However, the coalition partners of the five-party ruling alliance are at odds on whether or not to table the compact. 

The Maoist party has been stressing the need for forging a common understanding among the ruling partners before presenting the compact for ratification.