The nine-member commission, formed by the government in November with a mandate to offer suggestions to the CA on state restructuring, had submitted its report to the prime minister on Tuesday. [break]
Lauding the commission´s work, the prime minister argued that preparation of the report was an achievement in advancing the constitution-writing process.
"It is an achievement that we have received suggestions from the commission as provisioned by the Interim Constitution, and whether or not commission members differed on some issues doesn´t matter much," the prime minister said after handing over the report to the CA chairman.
Officials at the CA secretariat said leaders from the major political parties have reached an understanding to submit the SRC report to the full CA on Sunday for deliberations there.
Meanwhile, the CA meeting on Thursday endorsed a proposal to appoint UCPN (Maoist) lawmaker Amrita Thapa as coordinator of the five-member committee formed to draft an amendment to the CA regulations.
Thapa replaces another Maoist lawmaker, Ekraj Bhandari, who had to leave for home in Salyan for the funeral rites of his father, who passed away Tuesday.
The committee was formed recently with a view to paving the way for the entry of the State Restructuring Commission report into the CA´s Constitutional Committee (CC). The CC is entrusted with resolving disputes in constitution writing and preparing an integrated draft of the new constitution.
The CA regulations envision incorporation only of those reports submitted by the CA´s thematic committees. The Interim Constitution provides for the SRC to submit its report to the government and the latter will forward it to the thematic committee on state restructuring. However, the thematic committee already sent its report to the CA some two years ago whereas the SRC was formed only months ago.
Following Thapa´s appointment as head of the committee, CA Chairman Subas Nembang called the committee members to his chamber at Singha Durbar and directed them to finalize the draft by Sunday.
The SRC report will be forwarded to the CC only after the five-member committee submits its amendment proposal and the CA amends the regulations. The CA chairman pressed members of the amendment drafting committee to expedite matters as the process may take days while the deadline for the CC for resolving disputes in constitution writing, including thorny issues such as state restructuring and system of governance, expires on February 12.
While some Maoist lawmakers including party Chief Whip Dev Gurung and Bhandari are for tabling the SRC report at the CA´s thematic committee on state restructuring prior to forwarding it to the full CA, other parties including Nepali Congress and CPN-UML are for forwarding the report directly to the 601-seat CA for deliberations.
"Though Gurung and Bhandari were insisting on forwarding the report to the thematic committee, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal himself is convinced of the idea of forwarding it directly to the full CA," said a leader privy to the development. "Therefore, the report will in all likelihood be forwarded to the full House and then to the CC."
Related story
The room
