The Constitutional Committee (CC) of the CA formed the subcommittee with a mandate to settle around 75 disputes and the panel´s term was extended for the second time on March 30 as around 30 contentious points were yet to be resolved.[break]
“This should be blamed on irresponsible and unaccountable leaders. The CA and the people in general will always be the victim as long as the leaders give continuity to such tendencies,” summed up UML Lawmaker Agni Kharel, who is also a member of the subcommittee.
UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who heads the subcommittee, had backed out of his commitment to give continuity to his position in the body after its second term extension. Dahal on April 7 hesitantly agreed to give continuity to his position after several rounds of talks among the top leaders from the major political parties. But he didn´t convene a single meeting of the subcommittee as of Thursday.
Maoist Lawmaker Khimlal Devkota, who is also a member of the subcommittee, said the subcommittee couldn´t work due to obstruction in the CC. Some members from small political parties have been obstructing CC meetings accusing the major political parties of not paying attention to their concerns.
“We had planned to settle disputes in the thematic report on state restructuring but the CC committee couldn´t forward it to the subcommittee due to obstruction in the CC,” argued Devkota.
The subcommittee, which was formed on February 25, was originally given 17 days to accomplish the given tasks and it had effectively worked during its first tenure.
But it had run out of steam when its term was extended for the first time on March 15. During the 15-day extended time, the subcommittee convened only two formal meetings at Singha Durbar and an informal meeting at a Dhulikhel resort.
UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Dahal, former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal from CPN-UML, Nepali Congress (NC) parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel and Upendra Yadav of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum, among others, are members of the dispute settlement body.
The subcommittee, after first-extension of its deadline, settled only one issue related to managing the transitional period following the promulgation of the new constitution.
Members of the 64-member CC, which is mandated to settle the contentious issues and prepare the first integrated draft of the new constitution by incorporating all the thematic reports, had agreed to renew its term after the subcommittee made significant progress during its original tenure.
At the time of the formation of the subcommittee, there were altogether 75 contentious issues in the preliminary drafts. Earlier, the subcommittee had resolved over 40 disputes.
Despite the fact that the trouble-shooter body itself is in trouble, leaders argue that there is no alternative to giving continuity to the subcommittee and expediting the tasks of resolving the disputes soon.
“If the parties want to accomplish the tasks of statute drafting and promulgate a new constitution, there is no alternative to extending its term and making it effective,” said NC lawmaker and member of the subcommittee Radheshyam Adhikari.Kharel and Devkota also shared similar opinion. “The CC meeting should be convened immediately and it should extend the term of the subcommittee,” Kharel said.
Devkota said the leaders should be serious toward removing obstruction in the CC to ensure that the subcommittee works effectively.
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