The meeting participated by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal, along with other influential leaders from the three parties, has instructed the six-member taskforce to draft the motion on the basis of guidelines given by the top leaders. [break]
Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Narayankaji Shrestha and Dev Gurung from the Maoists, Bimalendra Nidhi, Krishna Sitaula, Arjun Narsingh KC and Shekhar Koirala from NC and Ishwar Pokharel, Yuvraj Gyawali and Keshav Badal from UML were present at the meeting. However, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, an invitee member of the mechanism, was not present.
The decision was taken after leaders of all the three parties realized that being able to prepare a common resolution motion would be a significant step toward confidence building among the political parties.
The meeting was held at the residence of former prime minister and Nepali Congress (NC) President Girija Prasad Koirala, who also heads the mechanism.
"After a discussion Dahal himself wholeheartedly proposed to take ahead the idea of preparing a joint resolution motion and create a conducive environment," Badal told myrepublica.com.
Earlier, the major parties had worked for months to end the political stalemate but failed to agree on the wording of the joint resolution motion. They couldn´t reach any agreement as the Maoists insisted on putting the blame on the president for taking an ´unconstitutional´ step by blocking erstwhile Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal´s decision to sack the then army chief. The NC and UML argued that they cannot accuse the head of state for an action taken by him under the recommendation of the 18 political parties that commanded a majority in parliament.
"We will draft the motion without leveling any accusation against the president," NC leader KC said. According to Badal, the Maoists have become flexible after they convinced them saying that despite various flaws it would not be wise to accuse the president. "Accusing the president will eventually backfire on the political parties because it will undermine the achievements of the April movement," Badal said.
The next meeting of the HLPM scheduled for Sunday afternoon will finalize the joint resolution motion, Khanal told reporters while emerging from the meeting.
The top leaders discussed issues ranging from constitution writing, the peace process and power-sharing in the government.
"Though constitution writing and the peace process were the main agenda items at the meeting, we obviously also discussed about forming a new government under our (Maoist) leadership as per the people´s mandate," Maoist Vice-Chairman Narayankaji Shrestha told reporters.
According to him, leaders from the other political parties have agreed to discuss the agenda. "First, start from the joint resolution motion. We may reach to the point you have been trying to take us," Shrestha quoted NC and UML leaders as saying regarding formation of the new government under Maoist leadership. "But we haven´t put forth the agenda of government formation as a condition for other issues," he clarified.
On power sharing the UML leaders argued that the party won´t be an obstruction once other issues including Maoist combatants and constitution writing are settled. "If the NC, which had first proposed UML leadership for this government, comes up with a conclusion that the government has failed to deliver, we are ready to rethink.
But at the same time this government represents other parties as well, therefore we can´t step down at once without consent from the other parties," UML leaders had said at the meeting.
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