Leaders say the meeting will deliberate whether or not to extend the term of the taskforce which expired Saturday.[break]
“We may entrust the Constitutional Committee (CC) with the task of sorting out remaining differences in constitution drafting. But we may go for extending the term of the taskforce if there is an agreement,” said Maoist chief whip Posta Bahadur Bogati.
Bogati said the taskforce made substantive progress in constitution drafting by narrowing down inter-party differences on constitution drafting.
There were more than 200 issues disputed by the parties, and the taskforce, which was formed on October 11, reduced them to less than a hundred.
“We think we can leave the issues to the CC now as the taskforce, in our opinion, has already done what it could,” said Bogati
While the panel members claim to have made substantive progress, others say the panel led by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has only addressed minor issues, bypassing the major ones.
The taskforce ironed out inter-party differences over citizenship, official language and economic policy, and made some progress on issues related to the judiciary. But the panel did not deal with the contentious issues of state restructuring and system of governance.
“The taskforce has already sorted out many differences. Now we can either extend its term or follow the regular CA procedure,” said UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal.
On citizenship, the taskforce agreed that the constitution should grant citizenship rights to non-resident Nepalis (NRNs) from outside South Asia, but NRNs will not have political rights including the right to vote. Similarly, if a Nepali man marries a foreign woman, the latter would immediately get a Nepali citizenship. But if a Nepali woman marries a foreign man, the latter would have to stay in Nepal for 15 years to qualify for citizenship.
Likewise, the leaders agreed on a mixed-model economic policy, under the state directive principle, to ensure independent development of the public, private and cooperative sectors.
While the panel agreed to form a Constitutional Council (CC) for making appointments to constitutional bodies, the leaders differed on the modality of judiciary after the Maoists pushed for “civilian control” over it.
Perhaps the biggest achievement of the taskforce is the agreement that the state cannot ban any political party for its ideology. The NC and UML had pushed for this provision, saying the Maoists might otherwise go for a one-party dictatorship.
Similarly, the taskforce agreed that Nepali would be the official language of the state for now and the constitution will provide for a “permanent language commission” to set certain criteria for other languages to become official.
Likewise, the Maoists want to mention “People´s War”, and “People´s Federal Democratic Republic” in the preamble, but others disagree. There is also a dispute over whether to use terms “right to self-determination” and “pluralism” in the preamble. The NC and UML want “pluralism”, but the Maoists are against it. Similarly, the NC has demanded that “right to self-determination” be clearly defined.
While the panel members say the CC can now begin to prepare the first integrated draft, CC Chairman Nilambar Acharya has argued that his committee will have technical difficulties in doing so without agreement on the system of governance, state restructuring and judiciary.
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