After undergoing two unsuccessful dissolutions in six months at the hands of the previous government led by KP Sharma Oli, the revived House of Representatives has been prorogued accomplishing very little under the new government of Sher Bahadur Deuba. No one knows when the House will be back in business.
Deuba, appointed on July 13 as per a July 12 Supreme Court diktat, struggled for three months to give full shape to his Council of Ministers. Governance was badly hit.
On the judiciary front, things are no better. A controversy concerning Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana has precipitated an unprecedented crisis in the judicial arm of government. Justices and lawyers are up in arms against the chief justice, who has been accused of demanding a share in the Deuba government, a charge that he has denied.
The Supreme Court is now hearing only habeas corpus petitions after it picked no case for days as Chief Justice Rana has come under pressure from fellow judges to quit while the lawyers’ fraternity is on the streets seeking end to rampant anomalies in court.
The government has got full shape but its pace is slow and sluggish.
Amid this, Nepal’s political parties have demonstrated lethargy.
As the crisis in the judiciary is deepening, there are calls from various quarters for political actors to make a move. But key political actors are silent.
