No real progress in dispute resolution

KATHMANDU, March 29: The subcommittee formed to settle the contentious issues in constitution writing has failed to make substantive progress in recent days even as its extended deadline is expiring Tuesday.



In the last 14 days, the subcommittee convened only two formal meetings at Singha Durbar and an informal meeting at a Dhulikhel resort.[break]



The Constitutional Committee (CC) of the Constituent Assembly (CA) formed the subcommittee, which is headed by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, on February 25 with a view to expedite dispute settlement. Former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal from CPN-UML and Nepali Congress parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel, among other lawmakers, are its members.



While the body was originally given a 17-day deadline to accomplish the tasks its deadline was extended for 15 more days on March 15.



The subcommittee, after extension of its deadline, settled only one issue related to managing the transition period. On the matter, the subcommittee proposed that the bodies and representatives existing during the promulgation of new constitution should be given continuity until new elected bodies or officials replace them.



Members of the 64-member CC, which is mandated to settle the contentious issues and prepare the first integrated draft of the new constitution by incorporating all the thematic reports, had agreed to renew its term as the subcommittee made significant progress during its original tenure.



Officials at the CA Secretariat said the sluggishness seen in the recent days shows the lack of seriousness and commitment among the senior party leaders to expedite constitution writing.



At the time of its formation of the subcommittee, there were altogether 75 contentious issues in the preliminary drafts. So far the subcommittee has resolved around 40 disputes.



"The meeting of the subcommittee is not taking place regularly in the recent days as we decided to do some homework beforehand because the remaining points are crucial," CC Chairman Nilamber Acharya told Republica.


CA deadline: 60 days to go



The CA is approaching its deadline which is expiring on May 28 even as it is yet to settle several thorny issues in constitution writing. While the CA is yet to determine the form of governance and electoral system, among other important issues, the political parties are yet to agree on the model of federalism and the number of provinces.

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