On forming the commission, the three parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML -- talked to the leaders from other parties to take their consent before reaching a final decision. The three parties had on Thursday reached a tentative agreement on the jurisdiction of such commission to settle the issues pertaining federalism. [break]
"First, we [three parties] agreed to form the commission with an understanding that such a body wouldn´t function as a parallel to the CA committee on state restructuring and then we talked to leaders from other parties as well," UCPN (Maoist) Vice-Chairman Narayankaji Shrestha told myrepublica.com.
The proposed commission´s role should be a complimentary one and it can´t challenge the CA´s recommendation, Shrestha said. The 43-member CA committee has passed a 14-province federal model.
Friday´s discussion remained inconclusive after leaders from other parties gave mixed reactions. "We decided to hold further discussions," he said.
Some leaders raised questions about some constitutional complications, while other leaders asked how to link the commission´s report with the CA´s draft.
"They sought support from us in issuing a directive from the CA to the government to form such a commission. But we rejected their proposal as it is against the Interim Constitution," said Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani of Rastriya Janashakti Party.
Pari Thapa of CPN (United) said the big parties´ initiative came too late.
According to Shrestha, they also discussed about setting the deadline regarding seeking consensus on forwarding the nine thematic preliminary reports to the Constitutional Committee (CC).
"We are for holding votes and forwarding the reports to the CC as we can´t halt the task of constitution writing for indefinite period in the name of seeking consensus," he said. In the meeting, some leaders liked the idea while others still insisted on reaching consensus.
UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal, Maoist Vice-Chairman Shrestha and NC Vice-President Ram Chandra Poudel, among others, participated in the meeting.
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