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.[break]
“I don´t say we have made no progress. We have narrowed down differences among parties and reduced the number of contentious issues,” says Nepali Congress leader Ramesh Lekhak, a member of the sub-committee formed to help the taskforce.
Lekhak admits the taskforce is yet to address major issues including federalism, state restructuring, governance and electoral systems, judiciary and structure of the legislature.
Formed on October 11, the taskforce has ironed out inter-party disputes over citizenship, national language and economic policy under the directive principals of state, and made some progress on judiciary.
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 right to vote. Similarly, if a Nepali marriages a foreign female, she will immediately get Nepali citizenship. But if a Nepali woman marries a foreign husband, he should stay in Nepal for 15 years to qualified for citizenship.
Likewise, the leaders agreed on a mixed-model economic policy to ensure independent development of the public, private and cooperative sectors.
The taskforce agreed to form a Constitutional Council (CC) for making appointments to constitutional bodies.
Perhaps the biggest achievement of the taskforce is agreeing that the state cannot ban any political party for its ideology. The NC and UML had pushed this provision, saying the Maoists might otherwise go for a one-party dictatorship.
The taskforce also agreed that Nepali would be the official language of state for now and the constitution will provide for a “permanent language commission” to set certain criteria for languages to become official languages.
The taskforce is yet to deal with the system of governance and state restructuring, the two most contentious issues before it.
Similarly, the Maoists want to mention “People´s War”, and “People´s Federal Democratic Republic” in the preamble, but others disagree. There is controversy over use of the terms “right to self-determination” and “pluralism”. The NC and UML want “pluralism”, but the Maoists are against that. Similarly, the NC has demanded that “right to self-determination” be clearly defined.
Chairman of Constitutional Committee (CC) Nilambar Acharya says it is impossible to formulate the first integrated draft without any agreement on key issues: system of governance and state restructuring. Meanwhile, Speaker Subas Nembang is holding a meeting Sunday to decide how to move ahead after the taskforce term expires.
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