Determine basic principles first: Nepali Congress

KATHMANDU, Oct 24: Leaders at a meeting of the 27 political parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) have differed over whether the statute-drafting process should be taken ahead only after determining the fundamental principles of the new constitution or settling the issues as it comes.



Nepali Congress (NC) leaders in particular stressed on determining the guiding principles of the new statute before sorting out the list of disputes in the thematic reports. But UCPN (Maoist) leaders said such a move would only stop the parties from taking the statute drafting process ahead.[break]



"How can we draft a new statute without first making clear what type of statute we are making? This is where the problem lies," NC parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel told reporters after the meeting.



He accused the Maoists of trying to hoodwink the people. "They are claiming that they are not against democratic principles. But in fact they are for establishing an autocratic system," he said.



Maoist Deputy Parliamentary Party leader Narayankaji Shrestha said that his party is for resolving the disputes through consensus and against stopping the process on the pretext of the need for elucidating the basic principles.



"We will try to resolve the disputes through consensus, if not we will go ahead as per the parliamentary regulations," he said, adding, "We can define the principles in due course." He said stopping the statute drafting process on any pretext would be a mistake.



While accusing the Maoists of trying to impose an autocratic system in the country, Poudel compared Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal with ex-king Mahendra Shah, who had enforced autocratic party-less Panchayat system by dissolving the democratically-elected government in 1960.


Taskforce term extended by 11 days



Meanwhile, the 27-party meeting decided to extend the term of the seven-member taskforce headed by Maoist Chairman Dahal by 11 more days.



"Though the work progress of the taskforce is not impressive we agreed to extend its term because top leaders have at least started deliberations on the contents of the new statute," said Hridaesh Tripathi of the Tarai-Madhes Democratic Party.



Maoist leader Dev Gurung, on behalf of the taskforce and the team of leaders entrusted with the task of assisting the taskforce in sorting out the disputes presented the details of the works accomplished by them so far.



A meeting of 27 parties had formed the taskforce on October 11 with a view to settle 220 disputes in the eight of the 11 CA thematic reports.



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