CA tenure extended by three-months
KATHMANDU, May 29:
It took numerous rounds of bilateral and multilateral meetings for political parties to reach agreement on Constituent Assembly tenure extension by three months.
A meeting of Nepali Congress, UCPN-Maoist, CPN-UML and the Madhes-based parties agreed to extend the Assembly tenure by three months, Chief Whip of Nepali Congress Laxman Ghimire told The Himalayan Times.
“It has been agreed that within these three months the remaining tasks of the peace process will be completed and the first draft of the constitution will be written,” Ghimire said. “
CPN-UML sources said Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal will step down, paving the way for formation of a national consensus government. These developments came hours after the Legislature-Parliament began belatedly today at around 11:15 pm with major political parties still disagreeing on the content and schedule of the peace and constitution-drafting processes and bases for national consensus. Today was the last day of the extended tenure of the Constituent Assembly, which had to be amended before 12:00 pm. The House session was called at 8:00 am but it started 15 hours later.
The delayed session of the House quashed a protest notice lodged by Chandra Bahadur Gurung, parliamentary party leader of Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, who argued that the ninth amendment Bill to extend the CA tenure was “meaningless and unconstitutional” and demanded that the government withdraw it. But a majority of the House rejected Gurung’s call, paving the way for the Legislature-Parliament to table the Bill to make the ninth amendment to Article 64 of the Interim Constitution.
After Gurung’s protest notice was defeated by a majority of votes, Law Minister Prabhu Sah got Parliament’s permission to table the Bill. But the House session was adjourned for 15 minutes as the parties were still at odds over the contents, plan of action on the peace process and constitution as well as national consensus.
Earlier, the major political parties — Unified CPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML — were busy in intense negotiations. They had also held separate meetings of their high command to find a way out of the crisis.
Leaders taking part in the negotiations told reporters that the three parties came up with several proposals, only to be at odds with each other.
The United Democratic Madhesi Front, a loose political alliance of five Madhes-based parties, namely the MJF-D, MJF-R, TMDP, Sadbhavana Party and TMDP-Nepal, demanded that their concerns be addressed before the three major parties clinched a deal on peace and the constitution.
The front’s demands include, among others, bulk entry of about 10,000 Madhesi people in the national security forces; only 5,000 Maoist combatants should be entertained during integration and “One Madhes, One Pradesh” should be recognized before the extension of the CA term. They even warned of boycotting the House if they were not consulted before any deal was reached among the three major parties.
As of the time this story was filed — 2:00 am, Sunday — the major parties were discussing a schedule that would finalise the entire gamut of the peace process and constitution within one week of the CA extension. The calendar of operation will, according to UML and NC leaders, aim at regrouping Maoist combatants and settling disputed issues of the new constitution within one month from June 4 to July 5. It had also proposed extending the CA term by six months though the NC had been lobbying only for two months till the conclusion of the peace process and, next four more months extension for drafting the constitution. But UML and Maoists did not buy the NC proposal.
UML General Secretary Ishwor Pokharel and Bhim Rawal, NC General Secretary Krishna Sitaula and Dr Minendra Rijal, UCPN-M leaders duo Janardan Sharma and Khimlal Devkota were engaged in preparing a common draft on peace, constitution and national consensus.
According to the tentative plan of action, the Maoist arms stored in containers in seven camps will be brought to one of the camps — the Chitwan-based Shaktikhor camp — and the keys of containers will be handed over to the Special Committee (on supervision, integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants) headed by the prime minister. This is the major bone of contention between the NC and the Maoists. A draft proposal was forwarded by PM Jhala Nath Khanal’s office for discussion among the parties concerned.
The proposal also aimed to hand over seized property to rightful owners; end dual security enjoyed by Maoist leaders; legalise the illegal vehicles used by Maoist leaders, dismantle YCL camps and hand over public property occupied by Maoists to the concerned bodies within a specified time.
The proposal also attached a rider on the PM. It said that the PM would have to resign if the regrouping of Maoist combatants could not be completed within one month.
The parties also discussed tabling all the agreements reached on the peace process, constitution and national consensus in the House to make them the latter’s property. Earlier, political agreements were never made the property of Parliament.
Source: THT
It took numerous rounds of bilateral and multilateral meetings for political parties to reach agreement on Constituent Assembly tenure extension by three months.
A meeting of Nepali Congress, UCPN-Maoist, CPN-UML and the Madhes-based parties agreed to extend the Assembly tenure by three months, Chief Whip of Nepali Congress Laxman Ghimire told The Himalayan Times.
“It has been agreed that within these three months the remaining tasks of the peace process will be completed and the first draft of the constitution will be written,” Ghimire said. “
CPN-UML sources said Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal will step down, paving the way for formation of a national consensus government. These developments came hours after the Legislature-Parliament began belatedly today at around 11:15 pm with major political parties still disagreeing on the content and schedule of the peace and constitution-drafting processes and bases for national consensus. Today was the last day of the extended tenure of the Constituent Assembly, which had to be amended before 12:00 pm. The House session was called at 8:00 am but it started 15 hours later.
The delayed session of the House quashed a protest notice lodged by Chandra Bahadur Gurung, parliamentary party leader of Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal, who argued that the ninth amendment Bill to extend the CA tenure was “meaningless and unconstitutional” and demanded that the government withdraw it. But a majority of the House rejected Gurung’s call, paving the way for the Legislature-Parliament to table the Bill to make the ninth amendment to Article 64 of the Interim Constitution.
After Gurung’s protest notice was defeated by a majority of votes, Law Minister Prabhu Sah got Parliament’s permission to table the Bill. But the House session was adjourned for 15 minutes as the parties were still at odds over the contents, plan of action on the peace process and constitution as well as national consensus.
Earlier, the major political parties — Unified CPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML — were busy in intense negotiations. They had also held separate meetings of their high command to find a way out of the crisis.
Leaders taking part in the negotiations told reporters that the three parties came up with several proposals, only to be at odds with each other.
The United Democratic Madhesi Front, a loose political alliance of five Madhes-based parties, namely the MJF-D, MJF-R, TMDP, Sadbhavana Party and TMDP-Nepal, demanded that their concerns be addressed before the three major parties clinched a deal on peace and the constitution.
The front’s demands include, among others, bulk entry of about 10,000 Madhesi people in the national security forces; only 5,000 Maoist combatants should be entertained during integration and “One Madhes, One Pradesh” should be recognized before the extension of the CA term. They even warned of boycotting the House if they were not consulted before any deal was reached among the three major parties.
As of the time this story was filed — 2:00 am, Sunday — the major parties were discussing a schedule that would finalise the entire gamut of the peace process and constitution within one week of the CA extension. The calendar of operation will, according to UML and NC leaders, aim at regrouping Maoist combatants and settling disputed issues of the new constitution within one month from June 4 to July 5. It had also proposed extending the CA term by six months though the NC had been lobbying only for two months till the conclusion of the peace process and, next four more months extension for drafting the constitution. But UML and Maoists did not buy the NC proposal.
UML General Secretary Ishwor Pokharel and Bhim Rawal, NC General Secretary Krishna Sitaula and Dr Minendra Rijal, UCPN-M leaders duo Janardan Sharma and Khimlal Devkota were engaged in preparing a common draft on peace, constitution and national consensus.
According to the tentative plan of action, the Maoist arms stored in containers in seven camps will be brought to one of the camps — the Chitwan-based Shaktikhor camp — and the keys of containers will be handed over to the Special Committee (on supervision, integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants) headed by the prime minister. This is the major bone of contention between the NC and the Maoists. A draft proposal was forwarded by PM Jhala Nath Khanal’s office for discussion among the parties concerned.
The proposal also aimed to hand over seized property to rightful owners; end dual security enjoyed by Maoist leaders; legalise the illegal vehicles used by Maoist leaders, dismantle YCL camps and hand over public property occupied by Maoists to the concerned bodies within a specified time.
The proposal also attached a rider on the PM. It said that the PM would have to resign if the regrouping of Maoist combatants could not be completed within one month.
The parties also discussed tabling all the agreements reached on the peace process, constitution and national consensus in the House to make them the latter’s property. Earlier, political agreements were never made the property of Parliament.
Source: THT
