KATHMANDU, Oct 26: Top leaders of the three major political parties have started negotiations on whether they can settle four major issues, namely the impeachment motion, constitution amendment, its implementation, and holding of local, provincial and federal elections all in a package deal.
A meeting between Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal of CPN (Maoist Center), Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML Chairman K P Oli at the prime minister's official residence in Baluwatar on Wednesday took the decision to resolve all the four issues simultaneously through consensus.
“The top three leaders discussed taking forward the impeachment motion in parliament, settling the issues of constitution amendment and implementation and holding elections, on the basis of interparty talks and consensus,” read a statement issued by the prime minister's secretariat after the meeting.
The leaders' have reached such understanding a day after the parliament started deliberations on the impeachment motion, which was registered by 157 lawmakers from the CPN-UML and Maoist Center against the chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), Lokman Singh Karki.
Dashain aayo (again)
This development has come at a time when the largest political party, the NC, has shown reluctance to support the impeachment motion unconditionally.
Also, leaders from Madhes-based political parties have accused the UML and Maoist leaders of conspiring to derail the constitution amendment process by “abruptly registering the impeachment motion”.
The leaders discussed holding local elections during April and provincial and federal elections in November next year.
While NC President Deuba pushed to settle all these issues in a package deal, UML Chairman Oli, however, was for resolving the issues independently and not to delay in endorsing the impeachment motion.
“Our party chairman's emphasis was on settling the impeachment motion without any further delay and resolving other issues independently and that there is no need to tie up multiple issues that may prolong the process,” UML Secretary Pradeep Gyawali told Republica.
According to leaders, Prime Minister Dahal was positive toward Deuba's proposal to resolve all the four issues in a package deal.
Deuba while emerging from the meeting told journalists that they mainly focused on constitution amendment issue as his party's central working committee has entrusted its parliamentary party with taking an appropriate decision over the impeachment motion.
