He said major political parties have already reached an understanding on most of the contentious issues and that he is optimistic about resolving the issues through consensus. [break]
“I am fully optimistic that the pending issues would be resolved soon through consensus. We (Maoists) will take a unilateral decision if the parties fail to reach consensus,” said Dahal at a function organized in Kathmandu on Friday.
He explained his party would take a move in a fashion similar to the ending of dual security arrangement ( to the Maoist leaders) and handover of the keys of the arms containers.
Dahal said that he is against delaying the peace process any further as the parties are running out of time. The parties are yet to fix the number of combatants to be integrated into the security forces, the norms and modality for integration, rank determination and rehabilitation package.
Dahal also claimed that the leaders on the dispute resolution subcommittee are very close to consensus.
“We have already reached an understanding on the system of governance and electoral model to be adopted in the new constitution,” he said. “We have also agreed in principle to form an experts´ panel to recommend a model of federalism.”
Nepali Congress (NC) leader and former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said the constitution writing process can´t progress without settling the contentious issues first. “The statute drafting process can´t progress without settling the thorny issues beforehand,” Deuba said.
He, however, clarified that the NC was ready to be flexible on the number of combatants to be integrated if other contentious points are settled through consensus.
UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal echoed Dahal. He claimed that the leaders on the dispute resolution subcommittee were very close to consensus over the system of governance, electoral model and state restructuring model to be adopted in the new constitution.
On the peace process, Khanal claimed that he had to step down as the prime minister despite his “very pragmatic proposal” on the peace process.
“My government and the Maoist leaders were close to finalizing the proposal. He (Dahal) had committed to make a breakthrough within couple of days. But the situation took an unexpected turn as leaders from both the UCPN (Maoist) and NC were reluctant in finalizing the deal,” said Khanal.
Civil society leaders, including former speaker Damannath Dhungana, Padma Ratna Tuladhar and Devendra Pandey urged the top leaders to not get embroiled in intra-party feuds and instead act like national leaders.
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