“I will be happy to reinstate the CA provided the parties are ready and the Supreme Court allows such an arrangement because I am the one who registered the bill seeking amendment to the constitution to pave the way for CA term extension by three months,” he told media persons at his official residence in Baluwatar on Saturday. The prime minister also said that he had also proposed declaring state of emergency to give CA a new lease of life. [break]
Bhattarai said he announced fresh CA election as SC would not have allowed any further extension of the CA term. “I thought the only option left for us was to announce fresh polls because the new constitution must be promulgated by the CA and not by any other body,” he explained.
Bhattarai, who is also a vice-chairman of UCPN (Maoist) party, also suggested a roadmap for taking the political course ahead through consensus. “First, we should settle the unresolved disputes in constitution writing and then forge consensus on the legitimate way to accomplish the incomplete task of constitution writing and promulgate the new statute,” said the prime minister. “The agenda item of power sharing comes third.”
He criticized the opposition parties, including the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML for insisting on the issue of power sharing as a precondition.
The prime minister said he is ready for a package agreement on all the three issues. He also said that it would be wise to resume the task right from the point where the task of constitution writing faltered.
Govt not a caretaker one
Bhattarai is not ready to accept that the current coalition is the caretaker one. He rather describes the current government as the one entrusted with the responsibility of holding fresh election.
He also rubbished arguments that his status had automatically turned into that of a caretaker prime minister from May 27 when the CA was dissolved because he was no longer a member of parliament from the same day.
“The provision is invoked only in a situation when parliament is in place but it doesn´t apply when the parliament doesn´t exist,” the prime minister explained. “This is also practiced in other countries such as Britain and India.”
Full-fledged budget
He claimed that the government will bring a full-fledged budget and believed that the parties will finally reach a consensus on the issue. “Failure to introduce full-fledged budget will cost the country dearly and leaders from other parties understand it,” he said. “I am fully optimistic that the parties will give consent to bring the new budget through ordinance.”
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