There are two broader ambiguities: One, the constitution is vague about the nature of such a session summoned by an opposition party, and, two, the parties are likely to dispute over what should be the business of the session. [break]
First, the constitutional ambiguity. Generally, it´s the government´s prerogative to summon or prorogue a regular session of the House and to provide it with business for deliberations. But a one-fourth membership of parliament can request President Dr Ram Baran Yadav to summon a session for a specific purpose. General parliamentary practice is that such a session is treated as a "special session" and is summoned to deal with the specific agenda for which it has been demanded.
But the interim constitution, unlike the previous constitution, is not clear on the issue. Exploiting this ambiguity, the Maoists are arguing that even a session summoned as per a petition by lawmakers becomes a regular session and can take up any agenda.
"There is no provision in the constitution for a special session, so the session summoned as per the petition of one-fourth of lawmakers can and should function like a regular House session," argued Maoist Vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha. He further argued that the lawmakers petitioning for the House session need not specify the agenda as the House can deal with multiple issues.
Constitutional lawyers disagree. Bimarjun Acharya, a constitutional lawyer, argues that when the lawmakers demand a session they must specify the agenda and the session can hold deliberations only on that specific agenda.
Officials at the parliament secretariat also say that since the constitution is not clear on these contested issues the political parties should work together to reach a common interpretation of the constitution.
However, an official at the secretariat said, citing past precedent, that a session initiated by lawmakers can be treated as a special session. "Though there is no specific provision on a special session as such, the Supreme Court, some years back, had said any session summoned upon the petition of lawmakers can be treated as a Special Session as it is not a regular one," said the official.
The whole constitutional debate would not have become so complicated if there was consensus on the business agenda for such a session.
The major parties want the House session for different reasons. The NC wants it just to get its prime ministerial candidate, Ram Chandra Paudel, elected as the next prime minister. A section of the UML led by party chairman Jhala Nath Khanal wants the House to amend the regulations on voting for prime minister so that a fresh round of voting can be started with new candidates. The Maoists also favor the amendment on voting for PM but they perhaps want to get the Budget Ordinance registered in the House so that it has to be passed by it within the next 60 days.
Maoist leaders also perhaps calculate that a House session will draw public attention away from the party´s current internal divisions and help the leadership rally the party to take on rival parties in the House.
Chief Whip of NC, Laxman Ghimire, said his party is not in favor of a special session but wants the government to summon a regular session immediately to elect the new prime minister. NC has already demanded that the lone prime ministerial candidate in the House, Ram Chandra Paudel, be elected unopposed as the new prime minister.
UML Chief Whip Bhim Acharya also said his party wants a regular session instead of a special session, but wants to fix the agenda for such a session only after party chairman Jhala Nath Khanal and Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal return from abroad.
UML has its own dilemma. The party is vertically split on whether it should elect the NC leader as the next prime minister or scrap the current election process and start afresh so that new political equations can be tried. And Prime Minister Nepal wouldn´t mind prolonging the status quo as long as possible.
Given these competing interests and constitutional ambiguities, the next House session-- special or regular--becomes all the more uncertain and the parties are likely to quarrel over it for some time.
thirbhusal5@gmail.com
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