The subcommittee, which is headed by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and represented by key leaders of the major political parties, is yet to resolve 14 disputes. [break]
The leaders are yet to decide which system of governance -- presidential, Westminster parliamentary system, mixed or any other form -- is to be adopted in the new constitution.
The subcommittee meeting decided to entrust a team of subcommittee members to settle the remaining issues and table its recommendations to the subcommittee on Friday. Lawmaker Laxman Lal Karna (Sadbhavana Party), Radheshyam Adhikari (Nepali Congress), Khimlal Devkota (UCPN-Maoist) and Agni Kharel and Sapana Malla Pradhan (CPN-UML) are members of the taskforce.
“We will try our best to settle as many of the remaining knotty issues and submit the report to the subcommittee,” Karna told Republica. The subcommittee, will then forward it to the 61-member Constitutional Committee, which is mandated to prepare the integrated draft of the new constitution, for endorsement.
Dahal, at the meeting, assured members from other political parties that the UCPN (Maoist) is committed to the agreements reached in the past. “We have reiterated our commitment to the past agreements and vowed to settle the remaining issues within the given timeframe,” Dahal told media persons after the meeting.
Dahal´s commitment has come at a time when leaders from non-Maoist parties were concerned about the remarks by Maoist leader Dev Gurung, who has challenged the past agreements.
Subcommittee meetings in the recent days has remained inconclusive after Gurung, challenging previous agreements, insisted that the wordings “people´s war” and pluralism be mentioned in the new constitution´s preamble and demand a provision making military training mandatory to each adult citizen.
As per the latest calendar of events, the remaining issues need to be resolved by December 30.
The parties earlier had agreed to decide the unresolved disputes through majority vote in the full 601-seat Constituent Assembly.
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