STATUTE DRAFTING AGREEMENT
- Hardliners’ oppn, Dahal absence stymie accord
UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s absence and hardline Maoist lawmakers’ opposition to an agreement on naming the federal legislature and voting rights on Monday hit efforts to endorse an agreement on constitution drafting.
The Constitutional Committee (CC) was on Monday scheduled to forge consensus on the name of the federal legislature, the age for adult franchise and the name of the lower house. Dahal remained absent for the second consecutive time in the CC meeting on Monday.
The Dahal-led subcommittee had agreed to name the federal legislature as Legislature Parliament and the lower house as the House of Representatives and it had recommended granting voting rights to all Nepali citizens above the age of 18.
“We could not draw a conclusion on the issues agreed to by the taskforce after some lawmakers argued that their parties are yet to take decisions,” committee Chairman Nilambar Acharya said. All members of the Dispute Resolution Subcommittee have been asked to attend the next CC meeting on Thursday. Maoist lawmakers of the hardline faction insisted that the federal legislature should be named as “People’s House of Representatives” and that all citizens above the age of 16 should be given voting rights.
“We could not reach a conclusion after Maoist lawmakers opposed the agreement reached in the subcommittee headed by their own chairman,” said Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Poudel.
Maoist lawmaker Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma argued that the CC is not bound to endorse the recommendation of the Dahal-led subcommittee.
CC focuses on KC threat instead
The CC on Monday condemned a threat issued against Rastriya Janamorcha Party lawmaker Chitra Bahadur KC. KC had said on Sunday that a person claiming to be the commander of the Jwala Singh group asked him to apologise for his “anti-federal stance” or be ready to face dire consequences. “The debate in the CC meeting focused on the threat rather than constitutional issues,” a source said.
Posted on: 2012-01-10 09:39
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All of them discussed the issue. The result was the same...and we have committed to continue discussions on the issue till midnight.
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