The demand was made at a meeting participated by leaders from the 14 parties and two independent CA members held at Singha Durbar. Leaders from the fourth and fifth largest parties -- Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D) and MPRF -- among other parties participated in the meeting to which 22 parties were invited. [break]
"After the meeting, we called on the CA chairman at his office and urged him to call an all-party meeting headed by PP leaders," Minister for Law and Justice Prem Bahadur Singh told myrepublica.com. According to him, Nembang has agreed to call such a meeting.
The major three parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML -- were, however, not invited to the meeting that took place at Singha Durbar.
Under the interim constitution the CA chairman can call a meeting of PP leaders from all the 25 political parties represented in the CA to seek solutions for contentious issues that surface in the constitution-writing process.
The CA has remained inactive for months due to differences mainly among the three major political parties. Though all 11 thematic committees in the CA have prepared their preliminary draft reports, the CA has failed to advance its work due to serious differences over several crucial agenda items.
The parties have differences over whether to opt for a presidential or a prime ministerial system, a bicameral or unicameral parliament, judicial independence, the model for state restructuring and number of provinces, among other matters.
The Constitutional Committee (CC), that is entrusted with preparing an integrated draft incorporating all 11 thematic committee drafts, a few months back asked the top leaders to resolve 16 major contentious issues so as to take the statute drafting process forward.
The 14 parties suggested that the chairman call such a meeting and start discussions that can be instrumental in sorting out the differences.
"We suggested such a move to the chairman as per the spirit of Article 70 of the interim constitution," Minister Singh said. The article says parliamentary party leaders of the political parties represented in the CA shall hold mutual consultations in order to reach a consensus on such matters.
The 14-party meeting also decided to expose the inefficiency of the three largest parties in regard to writing the constitution and taking the peace process to a logical end.
They formed a seven-member committee that will prepare a common draft on constitution writing and the peace process and an action plan to press the major parties. The members of the committee are CP Mainali, Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani, Hikmat Deuba, Baban Singh, Laxman Lal Karna, Rameshwar Ray Yadav and Laxmi Kumari Chaudhary Tharu.
A meeting on Wednesday will endorse the draft and make it public the same day.
They have also vowed to expose the major parties´ greed for power and its impact on constitution writing and the peace process.
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