Immediately after the CA meeting completed deliberations on the report prepared by the CA committee on legislative bodies on Sunday, CA chair Subas Nembang postponed the meeting until further notice.
Of the 10 thematic committees, only five have submitted their reports to the CA, while the Constitutional Committee (CC) has not been able to hold its meeting after then CC chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal was elected to the post of prime minister on May 23.
After the CA finished deliberations on the reports of the committee to determine the form of the legislative bodies, the next committee to submit its reports to the CA is the committee on judicial system, but the committee has been hobbled by serious differences between the CA members of the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist).
The committee could not finalize its preliminary draft and the concept paper as the Maoists wanted total control over the judiciary by the parliament. “It violates the theory of separation of power as well as check and balance,” CA member from the NC Amod Prasad Upadhyaya, who is also a member of the committee, said. “We have had difficulties as there is no political consensus at higher levels on constitution making.”
Similarly, the committee on division of natural resources, financial rights, and public revenue, too, has not been able to prepare its reports due to serious differences between the political parties. NC and UML have pressed for scientific land reforms while the Maoists have pressed for revolutionary land reforms.
Likewise, the political parties have also remained divided over giving privileges to specific ethnic groups. The whole process has been disturbed for lack of consensus among the top political leaders, says Maoist lawmaker Hari Rokka. So is the condition of the state restructuring committee, which has been hobbled by differences over the number, naming and delineation of the federal provinces, among other things.
The UCPN (Maoist) has also registered a note of dissent in the reports submitted by five other committees.
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