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Parties fail to keep word

KATHMANDU, JAN 28 -
Major political parties in Nepal are excellent in both formulating time-bound calendars for concluding the constitution-making process and missing key deadlines. Yet again, they  are set to seek extra time to resolve the contentious issues by amending the calendar for the 13th time.

The extended deadline for forging consensus on all disputed issues apart from state restructuring at the Constitutional Committee expires on Sunday. On Saturday, top leaders of the three major parties—UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-UML—held a series of meetings and agreed to seek an extension of the deadline to resolve the thorny issues.

“We have concluded that we cannot reach any conclusion by tomorrow. We have reaffirmed our commitment to promulgating the constitution by May 28 and agreed to revise the calendar to forge consensus on the disputed issues,” said UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal after the three-party meet held at Singha Durbar. The timeline of the amendment will be finalised by a Constitutional Committee (CC) meeting slated for Sunday morning.

The CC was supposed to refer the contentious issues for voting in the CA if there was no consensus by Sunday. The first draft of the constitution would then be prepared based on a majority vote. Top leaders of the three parties have avoided immediate confrontation on constitutional disputes by agreeing in principle to seek a revision to the calendar. However, it is likely to affect the plan to issue the first draft of the constitution by March 5.

Earlier, the Maoist party was in favour of preparing the first draft through a majority vote if there was no consensus in the CC. The NC and the UML had expressed reservations arguing that the promulgation of the constitution would be uncertain unless each provision garnered a two-thirds majority of the CA.

Nepal Majdoor Kishan Party Chairman Narayan Man Bijukchhe has serious reservations over the plan to seek revision to the schedule. “The indecisiveness of the major parties is the cause of the obstruction in constitution-making. It is not fair to brand all 601 lawmakers as inefficient,” he said. “Had the unsettled issues been referred to the full House, they could have been debated and the first draft of the constitution prepared.”

This is the second time that the major parties are mulling over extending the deadline to resolve the disputed issues in the CA schedule introduced last month. The CA had scrapped its first calendar introduced in 2008 after parties failed to meet deadlines even after its 11th amendment. The recent calendar was introduced after the Supreme Court issued a ruling saying that the CA would automatically dissolve if it fails to complete its work within the May-28 deadline.

Calendar revision not good : Nembang

Constituent Assembly Chairman Subas Nembang has said that the repeated revision to the constitution-making calendar is not a right move. He has urged top leaders of the major parties to concentrate on accomplishing the peace process and statute drafting within the deadline. “I told the leaders that time is running out so they need to assure the people of making progress in peace process and statute making,” he said. “There is no alternative to promulgating the constitution by the May-28 deadline.”

Nembang, along with Constitutional Committee Chairman Nilambar Acharya, held separate meetings with top leaders of three parties and representatives of the 33 fringe parties in the CA on Saturday. “The fringe parties said they want to see the major parties resolve disputes,” said Nembang.  During the three-party meeting called by Nembang, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal assured that both the peace and constitution-writing processes would see progress in the near future.

Posted on: 2012-01-29 07:42

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