Presenting their feedback on the draft constitution to top leaders of four major political parties on Wednesday, they maintained that the provision of parliamentary committee to monitor and evaluate their activities will seriously hamper their day to day works. They also asked the top political leaders, including Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, to remove the provision from the draft constitution.Four major parties had invited chiefs of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), National Human Rights Commission, Election Commission and Public Service Commission to seek their feedback on various provisions relating to their respective offices in the draft constitution.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha had also reached Baluwatar to give the apex court's feedback on the statute.
According to UCPN (Maoist) Vice Chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha, who was present in the meetings held with the heads of constitutional bodies and the Supreme Court, all the heads of constitutional bodies suggested removing the provision of parliamentary monitoring and evaluation of their activities.
EC Acting Head Dolakh Bahadur Gurung asked the four parties to either clearly mention specific date for election to be held every five years in constitution or allow them to set the election date in consultation with the government. "The EC also suggested setting threshold for parties to secure seats under proportional representation electoral system," said Maoist Vice Chairman Shrestha.
Likewise, EC has suggested top leaders of the major parties to either entrust the EC with delineating electoral districts or include EC representative in the Election Constituency Delineation Committee. "There is a technical difficulty in ensuring 33 percent women representation. It would be better to make reservation of election constituency to women," Shrestha quoted EC's top official's suggestion.
PSC Chief Commissioner Umesh Prasad Mainali pointed out the drawback in the provisions relating to the provincial public service commission. "There is a provision of constituting such a commission at the provincial level as per the existing laws. Since the laws can be changed by the party that gets majority, this will seriously affect the neutrality and credibility of PSC in the recruitment of public servants," Mainali told Republica.
The PSC has suggested either having a strong constitutional provision or entrusting the federal PSC with overseeing the tasks of provincial Public Service Commission. "Else, this will create a system of protected bureaucracy. Such provincial PSC will be similar to committee under District Development Committee that recruits employees," Mainali said.
CIAA Chief Lok Man Singh Karki and NHRC Chief Anup Raj Sharma suggested removing the provision of parliamentary monitoring of the activities of constitutional bodies. He also suggested not curtailing the jurisdiction of the anti-graft body.
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