Top leaders of political parties will meet here on Friday to resolve the impasse over the draft regulation for the House of Representatives that has simmered for long without any solution.

Serious differences among the cross party lawmakers over the regulations ended previous meeting in a stalemate. The regulations are mandatory to guide the functioning of the parliament.

The Regulation Drafting Committee of House of Representatives (HoR) on Thursday was supposed to resolve the issue on whether or not to suspend Member of Parliament and increase the numbers of House Committees.

The ruling parties press for immediate suspension of lawmakers sent to judicial custody by the court for any criminal offence. Opposition parties are against it.

They argue this rule has potential for misuse. Opposition members want to limit the numbers of committees to seven while ruling parties are against it.

“The issue was not resolved on Thursday. There will be a joint meeting of top leaders on Friday,” said Min Bishwokarma member of the committee from Nepali Congress.

Ruling parties insist on increasing the number of parliamentary committees to 10 and suspending lawmakers sent to judicial custody for any criminal offence that could sentence them to prison term of three years or more. The opposition parties oppose this.

The Nepali Congress, Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal and Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal lawmakers reject these suggestions. They say the number of House committees should be seven as recommended by the Parliament Secretariat and not suspending MPs unless a court convicts them of an offence.

The ruling parties argue that the Secretariat suggested seven House committees assuming there would be 15 ministries. Now the number has increased to 21 so House committees should also increase.

The joint committee plans to table the draft regulation in the House on Sunday, the very first day of the budget session and endorse it by May 10.