Statute drafting: Ray of hope

Despite months of bickering over government leadership, this week, leaders from major political parties have agreed on something very important. Beginning Sunday, the three major political parties – UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML – have agreed to take forward the stalled task of constitution-writing even though they still remain clearly polarized on the issue of government formation. The big three parties have committed to complete the task of statute-drafting by April 13 next year, some 45 days before the extended term of the Constituent Assembly (CA) expires.



CA Chairman Subas Nembang has called a meeting of the Assembly on Sunday. This will be the first meeting of the CA in over three months. The parties have decided to endorse a new calendar of operation for the remaining months. Besides, it is also encouraging to note that the parties have resolved their differences with regard to the formation of the proposed state restructuring commission.



But the moot question is: Is this enough? Looking back, we are afraid to say that there isn’t much that we can cheer about at this juncture. This suspicion emanates from the fact that the parties do not have a very good track record of living up to their promises. The knowledge that Chairman Nembang had to make 10 amendments in the CA’s calendar of operation before extending the CA term on May 28 is still fresh in public memory.



The Constitutional Committee (CC) that is entrusted with preparing a single draft of the constitution by incorporating all the 11 preliminary reports prepared by the thematic committees has received only three reports so far. The parties are yet to sit down and settle over a dozen serious disputes that surfaced while preparing the drafts because of which they have essentially not been able to forward the reports to the CC. Without receiving these reports, the CC will not be able to prepare an integrated draft.



We strongly hope that this time the parties will not fail in meeting the deadlines that will be set in the revised calendar of operations. This can only happen if our parties realize that a lot is at stake including their reputations, which has already taken a severe beating by the way in which they have conducted themselves lately. The CA needs to be an independent body free from political maneuverings. We hope that the parties have learnt from their past mistakes and will keep the Assembly away from the clutches of political bickering. Finally, we also recommend the political parties to agree on the basic principles of the new constitution first thing when the CA resumes its work. This will ensure that when they sit down to actually write the statute, they will not have to face unnecessary and unwanted hassles.

Related story

Additional X-ray machines installed at TIA customs