The party leaders are to discuss the issue again on Friday to seek agreement. [break]
According to UML CA member Agni Kharel, the leaders have agreed not to allocate specific numbers of members to the different political parties, but to induct members from backward sections of society including dalits, women and janajati or ethnic minorities.
“There has been agreement to form a commission comprising experts,” said Kharel, “The members would be appointed later.”
The commission will complete its work within two months of its formation and submit a report to the prime minister. Speaker Subash Nembang had requested the party leaders to form the commission so that drafting of the constitution would be completed by mid-April, 2011.
There was a sharp difference between the ruling NC and CPN-UML on one hand and the UCPN (Maoist) on the other over the jurisdiction of the commission as the Constituent Assembly (CA) committee on state restructuring has already endorsed report including a 14-province map.
The Maoists argued that the state restructuring commission cannot override the decision of the CA committee but the NC and UML wanted the commission to function independently.
As per the new agreement, the prime minister would submit the commission´s report to the CA chairman, who will then hand it over to the CA committee on state restructuring after getting it endorsed by a full CA meeting. The CA committee would then deliberate on both reports and prepare a new one.
The next meeting of the party leaders will also discuss the formulation of a new CA calendar to facilitate the task of constitution drafting.
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