But officials at the parliament secretariat and at the prime minister´s office said they have not been informed as of Friday about any initiative taken to call a House session.[break]
Speaker Subas Nembang has already pressed the prime minister to initiate steps for summoning a session as the president summons and prorogues parliament upon the recommendation of the executive head.
"I have been pressing the prime minister verbally to take the initiative to summon the session. I have also made the urgency of the matter clear in writing to top leaders from the major political parties," Speaker Nembang told Republica.
While floating a new plan of action and schedule for completing the new constitution at a meeting on Thursday, Nembang clearly informed the top leaders in writing that there was no possibility of promulgating a new constitution without first amending Article 70 of the Interim Constitution and some provisions in the CA regulations.
"I urge the government to prepare the constitution amendment bill and register it at the parliament secretariat so that it will mature by the time the House session is convened," the speaker said at the CA Business Advisory Committee meeting Thursday, which was attended by top leaders including UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party leader Ram Chandra Paudel, CPN-UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal and Deputy Prime Minister Bijay Gachhadar. At the meeting, Nembang pressed the leaders and the government to call a House session within not later than a week.
The Interim Constitution suggests the taking of initiatives to forge consensus on each and every clause of the proposed constitution. In case of failure to forge consensus on any of the clauses, the parliamentary party leaders of political parties represented in the CA need to hold mutual consultations. As per the constitutional provision, leaders will be given a 22-day timeline to resolve the disputes. This provision is invoked even if a single lawmaker expresses his/her objection while separately endorsing each and every clause of the proposed constitution through the 601-seat CA.
Amendment of the constitution has become imperative as it is practically impossible to abide by the 22-day timeline for dispute resolution each time any of the lawmakers makes an objection.
Officials at the parliament secretariat said the leaders, in view of the time constraints, are in a mood to amend the constitution and incorporate a provision allowing for endorsement of the entire constitution bill -- not each article of the new constitution separately -- through a single motion in the House. The constitution bill requires to be passed by a two-thirds majority of a meeting attended by at least two-thirds of all existing members of the CA.
Amending the constitution requires two weeks if each and every one of the procedures is observed. The government needs to give a notice to the parliament secretariat at least five days prior to the introduction of the bill at a parliamentary meeting. Thereafter, a copy of the bill needs to be made available to every member two days in advance of the day for presentation of the bill, among other procedures. Besides that, a new House session is generally summoned at a week´s notice.
Also, some of the provisions of the CA regulations need to be amended in line with amended provisions of the constitution. "The regulations can be amended only after the amendment of the constitution because the former needs to follow the latter. So some additional days are needed," said an official at the parliament secretariat.
While the CA is yet to carry out several procedural as well as other steps in the next 50 days or so, the Constitutional Committee (CC), which is tasked with preparing the first integrated draft of the new constitution, is yet to resolve major thorny issues, let alone prepare an integrated draft incorporating all the 11 thematic drafts.
Determining system of governance, state restructuring, judicial system and electoral system are the major bones of contention among the big political parties.
As per the latest schedule, the speaker has proposed to resolve the disputes by April 17, vote on unresolved issues (if any) on April 18 and 19, prepare the integrated draft by April 27 and hold public deliberations over the draft until May 13.
Work at the CC and the dispute resolution subcommittee has come to a virtual halt with NC and UML leaders insisting that there should be tangible progress in the integration of former Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army before advancing the constitution writing process.
A meeting on Sunday of the prime minister-led special committee, which oversees the task of army integration, is supposed to resolve all the remaining contentious issues in army integration. "All eyes are on the special committee meeting because the leaders have repeatedly pledged to concentrate all their efforts on constitution writing after the special committee resolves the army integration issues," said a top official at the parliament secretariat.
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