KATHMANDU, April 7: After a hiatus of two months, Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subas Nembang convened the CA meeting on Monday.
The meeting lasted only for minutes as it didn't enter into business except for endorsing the motion to pay tributes to two former lawmakers -- Ramnath Dhakal of CPN-UML and Mahendra Yadav of Nepali Congress (NC), who passed away recently.
Representatives from UCPN (Maoist), Madhes-based and other opposition parties also attended the CA meeting though they have launched agitation accusing the ruling parties' of taking ahead the majority process for constitution writing. They had been boycotting the CA meeting since January 25.
"Today [Monday], we decided to attend the CA meeting as it was held only to pass condolence motion," UCPN (Maoist) Chief Whip Girirajmani Pokharel told reporters while entering the CA building. "But, we will not attend any CA meeting aimed at taking ahead the majority process for constitution writing."
The opposition parties after holding a meeting at Singha Durbar on Monday afternoon decided to attend the meeting.
UCPN (Maoist) Chief Whip Pokharel, Madhesi People's Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D) Chairman Bijay Gachchhadar and vice chairperson of the same party Jitendra Dev, among other lawmakers from the opposition parties, attended the meeting.
Nembang at the meeting announced to convene the next CA sitting for April 13.
Leaders said Nembang chose not to call another CA meeting immediately probably because the opposition alliance has called a three-day nationwide general strike starting Tuesday.
Earlier on February 12, he had deferred the meeting until further notice following request from leaders of major political parties and civil society representatives. The latter had suggested to Nembang to defer the CA meeting for some days so as to provide time to help settle disputed issues in constitution writing through consensus.
However, the CA chairman called the meeting for Monday as there was no progress with regard to resolving disputes in constitution writing through negotiations.
Nembang's decision to convene the CA plenary has come at a time when the ruling parties have decided to forward issues settled through political understanding and negotiate on unresolved issues.
Leaders from the ruling Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have claimed that the major parties had earlier reached an understanding with regard to settling disputes on the system of governance, electoral and judicial models. They are for forwarding the reports to the CA's drafting committee based on the same political understanding. They are, however, for settling disputes relating to state restructuring through interparty talks with the opposition parties.
However opposition parties have been insisting that all the unresolved issues be settled though a package deal and not in isolation.
Dhakal cremated
Meanwhile, UML politburo member and former chairman of parliament's state affairs committee Dhakal was cremated at Aryaghat amidst the presence of hundreds of party members and others on Monday. Dhakal died while receiving treatment at Grande International Hospital on Sunday. His body was placed at UML head office for some hours for party leaders to pay him their last tributes earlier in the morning. Hundreds of members from UML and other parties and people from various walks of life had visited the party office to pay last respects to the UML leader.
Dhakal was elected from Gulmi-1 in 1994 and from Rupandehi-5 in 2008. He is remembered for leading the parliaments state affairs committee very efficiently.
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