Nepal's reinstated House of Representatives to hold first meeting on July 18

Nepal’s President Bidhya Devi Bhandari on Thursday summoned a meeting of the reinstated House of Representatives (HoR) on the recommendation of Nepal’s newly formed cabinet. On the same day, a separate meeting of the National Assembly or the Upper House of the Parliament will also take place, the Office of President said in an official press release. "The meeting has been summoned for 4 pm of Sunday, July 18,” it stated. 

The decision to call a cabinet meeting was made after the Nepal Supreme Court's verdict on the House dissolution case on Monday that required the HoR to meet within a week of the appointment of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. The 275-member lower house of parliament will be meeting for the first time since the parliament was unconstitutionally dissolved on May 22 after ousting of the then-Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli.  

The Nepal parliament was dissolved in May by ex-PM Oli after he was removed as Chairman of ruling NCP over allegations of corruption, mishandling of COVID-19, and tensions with the party of former Maoist rebels Pushpa Kamal Dahal, with whom he had merged to form a unified Communist Party. 

Deuba formed small '5 member' cabinet

The newly sworn-in Deuba formed a small 5 member cabinet earlier yesterday after he was sworn in as the Prime Minister for the fifth time, following months of political turmoil in the Southeast Asian country due to the abrupt dissolution of the parliament. Deuba won the support of 149 of the total 275-seat in the lower house, post which, Nepal’s Supreme Court reinstated the parliament. Although, a vote of confidence will be held in the lower house of the parliament in approximately 7 days as announced by the court that will cement Deuba’s leadership to permanent for the remaining term of the parliament.

It is worth noting that Deuba is short of a majority as the rival fiction of CPN-UML has backed off. The rival faction of ruling CPN-UML under the leadership of Madhav Kumar Nepal has separated itself from the alliance formed to fight against caretaker PM Oli. The two factions in the UML - one led by Oli and the other by Madhav Kumar had reached a 10-point agreement to bury their hatchet