Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said formal and informal discussions with various parties are underway to end the ongoing political deadlock. 

During a meeting with Speaker Onasari Gharti at Baluwatar on Saturday, PM Dahal expressed hope of an agreement among the parties “very soon” to break the stalemate.

A constitution amendment bill registered by the government on November 29 has widened rift between the governing parties and the opposition forces.

The UML and six other parties in opposition have been obstructing Parliament to protest against the amendment bill for the past one week. The UML has said it will not let the House function until the government withdraws the constitution amendment bill. 

Speaker Gharti’s meeting with PM Dahal on Saturday was part of her ongoing efforts to end the House deadlock, which has affected parliamentary proceedings. 

Speaker Gharti had met Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Thursday in a bid to find a way out to the current logjam.

The Speaker’s meeting with Deuba and Oli, however, had failed to yield positive results, as both the leaders stuck to their guns. 

“The government is in regular discussion with all the parties. The stalemate won’t last long,” Babin Sharma, press adviser to Speaker Gharti, quoted PM Dahal as saying during the meeting. 

Due to continued House obstruction, discussions on an impeachment motion against Lokman Singh Karki, the suspended chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, have failed to move forward even two months after the motion entered Parliament. 

According to Sharma, the Speaker called on the prime minister to intensify talks and hoped that there would be some kind of agreement among parties by the time she returns from her foreign trip. Speaker Gharti left for Dubai on Saturday to participate in a conference of women lawmakers. She will return home on Wednesday. The next House meeting has been scheduled for Thursday.