The six-member taskforce comprising two members each from the ruling Nepali Congress (NC), the CPN-UML and the main opposition UCPN (Maoist), will recommend solutions to both issues within the next two days. The members are Narayankaji Shrestha and Dev Gurung from UCPN-Maoist, Krishna Sitaula and Arjun Narsing KC from NC and Bharat Mohan Adhikari and Bhim Rawal from CPN-UML.
A meeting of top leaders will then discuss the recommendations and reach an agreement, said Maoist Vice-Chairman Narayankaji Shrestha, who participated in the meeting held at Singha Durbar.
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Home Minister Bhim Rawal, Bharat Mohan Adhikari and Bishnu Poudel represented the CPN-UML at the meeting. UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-Chairmen Mohan Baidya, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and Narayankaji Shrestha were present from the main opposition party. Likewise, Acting President of Nepali Congress (NC) Sushil Koirala, parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel and Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, Arjun Narsing KC and Mahesh Acharya represented the NC.
"At today´s meeting, leaders from all the three parties expressed the common view that we have arrived at a very critical juncture and we have no option left but to resolve the issues through national consensus," Shrestha told reporters. According to him, the parties have agreed at least on one point, that the major parties must remove mistrust among themselves.
The taskforce has been instructed to review past agreements including the 12-point agreement signed between the then rebel Maoists and the government and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), while recommending ways to resolve the political deadlock.
The parties have realized the immediate need for ending the confrontational situation that emerged mainly following the Kailali incident where at least five people were killed in a clash with police and illegal settlers in the forest area. The taskforce will suggest ways to create a conducive environment for consensus among the major parties over expediting the peace process and constitution writing.
PARTIES SEEK MODUS VIVENDI
The political parties, that used to speak out their differences in public immediately after holding any bilateral or multilateral talks, have agreed to observe a certain discipline over such talks.
They have also agreed not to speak about their differences and stances to media or at any public platform. On Monday, they designated persons from the three parties to talk to media. Shrestha, KC and Rawal from the Maoists, NC and UML respectively will talk to media.
DHUNGANA, TULADHAR AT MEETING AS INVITEES
Indicating an effort to make the talks more systematic, the three parties took the new initiative of inviting two senior representatives from civil society.
Senior human rights activists Daman Nath Dhungana and Padma Ratna Tuladhar attended the tripartite meeting as invitees.
"They may ask us to attend similar meetings in future as well. We will be there as and when they feel our need," Dhungana told Republica. "They have no serious differences. As they have the common realization that the country is at a serious stage, forging consensus among the three parties is not a serious problem," he said about his impressions. Both Dhungana and Tuladhar had worked as facilitators during talks between erstwhile governments and the then Maoist rebels.
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