KATHMANDU, March 25: As leaders from the major political forces make no progress in settling disputes on the constitution-making front, Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subas Nembang is preparing to resume the stalled CA proceedings in the next couple of days.
Preparatory to moving ahead, he has called a meeting of the chief whips of major political parties for Wednesday to discuss resuming the CA meetings that have remained stalled for nearly one and a half months.
Upon requests mainly from the opposition parties and civil society, Nembang on February 12 deferred the CA plenary until further notice.
Chief whips of the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, UCPN (Maoist), Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N), Madhesi People’s Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D) and MPRF-Nepal have been invited to the meeting convened by the CA chairman.
Last week, Nembang convened a meeting of top leaders from the major political parties and urged them to settle their disputes by Wednesday.
Though party leaders are nowhere near agreeing over the matter, Nembang seemed determined to resume stalled business.
The CA chairman said he has been giving enough time and space to leaders for settling disputes in consensus and he will do so in the days to come as well.
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Asked what his plans are for the CA’s course ahead amidst a deepening political deadlock, Nembang argued that the CA can neither turn back from its course nor stand still for long at the same point where it is now.
“I will take the stalled CA proceedings ahead while giving enough time and space to political parties for forging consensus,” Nembang told Republica. “Within moments of the leaders settling the issues I can arrange the CA business accordingly.”
Nembang, at the meeting last week, told top leaders that deferring the CA plenary indefinitely would only send out a message of uncertainty to the people.
Last week, he clearly indicated his plan to resume the stalled proceedings in case leaders fail to end the deadlock.
However, since then, not a single formal meeting has been held among leaders of the major political forces. Some interlocutors held informal parleys but these haven’t yielded anything substantive.
There is no chance of meaningful talks in the next couple of days as UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who also heads the 30-party alliance of opposition parties, left for China Monday.
Nembang’s indication toward CA resumption comes at a time when the opposition parties are planning to intensify their protests against any constitution-making process based on a majority in the CA.
The 30-party alliance has announced it is to boycott events to be attended by the prime minister and other ministers and also obstruct them from attending public functions. They are to greet the prime minister with black flags.
Maoist Chairman Dahal earlier this month warned that they might quit the CA altogether if the ruling parties go ahead with constitution drafting on the basis of their two-thirds majority.
The opposition parties have boycotted the CA meetings since Nembang announced on January 25 the formation of the CA’s questionnaire committee. The committee has already prepared a list of questionnaires and laid the ground for deciding the contentious issues through majority vote in the CA plenary.
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