KATHMANDU, Oct 1: The ruling Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML and the main opposition UCPN (Maoist) on Thursday agreed to end the protracted political crisis through a joint motion in the Legislature-Parliament, but the parties are yet to agree on the content of such a motion. [break]
A meeting of the three major parties at the Maoist parliamentary party office in Singha Durbar decided to hand over the task of writing the draft of the motion to the UML and discuss it with the Maoists.
“We are close to striking a deal on principal issues and we hope to prepare the draft of an agreement in a day or two,” said UML Secretary Yubaraj Gyawali. The three political parties are scheduled to meet on Friday evening to discuss the first draft. The Maoists and UML have termed it a resolution motion, while the NC has called it just a proposal. The political parties have also agreed to amend the constitution, if needed.
According to Gyawali, the first draft proposal to be prepared by the UML will mainly include four subjects: Democratization of Nepal Army, civilian supremacy, constitutional provision on the president and executive authority of the cabinet. However, the formal wording of the agreement has not been decided yet.
Top political party leaders including Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, NC President Girija Prasad Koirala, UML president Jhala Nath Khanal and Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal are likely to hold a meeting to give a final touch to the draft.
According to a leader, the proposal will be a general statement that may have a mentioning of the president and uphold civilian supremacy but won’t blame the president for reinstating then army chief Rookmangud Katawal against the Maoist-led government’s decision to sack him.
But differences between the ruling NC and UML and the main opposition UCPN (Maoist) persist as the latter has demanded that the motion should mention the president’s move, while the NC and UML say they are ready to talk and uphold civilian supremacy in the parliament but not to debate the president’s move in the parliament.
“The resolution motion should address our demand for civilian supremacy, including the unconstitutional step of the president, in one form or the other,” Maoist vice chair Narayan Kaji Shrestha said.
A Maoist leader, however, said they will show maximum flexibility to end the deadlock as the country is heading to crisis. “The party has decided to show flexibility at its utmost as the country is moving towards serious crisis and we don’t want the regressive forces take advantage of this,” he said, adding “There will be an icebreak soon.”
Meanwhile, there were series of meetings among the leaders throughout the day. UML president Jhala Nath Khanal met with Maoist chairman Dahal at the latter’s residence at Naya Baazar on Thursday morning. Maoist vice chair Dr Bhattarai was also present in the meeting. The three discussed the ways to address the issues raised by the Maoists.
Meanwhile, Indian ambassador Rakesh Sood also met with Dahal in the morning and discussed the current political situation in Nepal. In yet another high profile meeting, PM Nepal called on President Yadav to apprise the latter of his recent visit to New York. The two also held talks on the political situation.
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