With the winter session of the federal Parliament scheduled to start on Friday, leaders from both the ruling and opposition parties have instructed their lawmakers to prepare for an effective presence and participation in House meetings. To kick things off, Parliament is likely to witness heated debate on the endorsement of six ordinances the government recently enforced. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, in a parliamentary party meeting of CPN-UML on Tuesday, instructed lawmakers to defend government moves, particularly to stand firm in favour of the ordinances. Sher Bahadur Deuba, president of the largest ruling party, Nepali Congress, has also instructed Congress lawmakers not to speak against the ordinances.

On the other hand, leaders from the opposition parties seem to be as prepared to ‘expose the government’s wrongdoings’. At first, the two sides will lock horns over the need to issue the ordinances by bypassing Parliament. In Nepal, amending laws through ordinances has always been an issue of debate. Almost all political parties that have led the government have used this constitutional provision. The Oli-led UML strongly objected to the Congress-Maoist Centre government’s decision in 2021 to issue an ordinance to amend the Political Parties Act-2017. The Congress later objected to the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government’s decision to amend nine Acts through ordinance just ahead of the Investment Summit in April last year. This time, it is the turn of Dahal’s Maoist Centre to criticise the Oli government for bypassing the House. The government sometimes needs this constitutional provision, but there are many instances of its abuse. Thus the practice of amending laws through ordinances warrants a rigorous but merit-based debate.

As the lawmakers return to the House on Friday, there are several issues they have to work on. A number of bills have been stuck in Parliament for years while provinces, various government bodies and other stakeholders lament about their work being hampered in the absence of laws. The political parties must work sincerely to work to pass the bills. There are also multiple pressing issues directly concerning the general public. Thousands of people who were displaced by landslides, floods and other disasters, have been languishing in a sorry state. The government has failed even to rehabilitate those displaced by Jajarkot earthquakes in November 2022. The national economy is stagnant. Though successive governments and finance ministers of each coalition present some facts and figures claiming that they have done a lot to perk up the economy, the market has failed to gather steam after the end of the Covid pandemic.

Parliament is the central organ of the political system we have adopted. This is the body that gives birth to the government and it is through the legislature or the people’s representatives that the executive is made accountable. Thus weakening of Parliament is, by extension, weakening of the political system. Sadly, political parties, their leaders and lawmakers don’t take the House businesses and their roles seriously enough. As top leaders from both the ruling and opposition parties prepare to address the inaugural House meeting on Friday, they should be mindful that they set the right tone from Day 1.