KATHMANDU, Sept. 30 -- The salaries and allowances of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR) will be withheld until the court orders. The Parliament Secretariat has withheld the salaries and allowances that they are to get after September 17. Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota and Deputy Speaker Pushpa Bhusal's salaries have been withheld and the salaries and allowances to be received by their personal secretaries, too, have been held back.

A writ petition was filed at the Supreme Court on September 22, raising questions about the Speaker's tenure. Sources said that the services after September 17 have been stopped until the court's decision. As the term of the HoR ended a day before the Election Commission's fixed...