A meeting of the leaders of the three largest political parties discussed at length the issues related to the political deadlock Friday evening and agreed to hold a meeting of the top leaders to strike a deal in a few days.
"We set the agendas with the intention of holding serious talks on ending the political impasse," Maoist Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai told myrepublica.com.
The agendas for talks set on Friday are: Clearing the atmosphere of mutual distrust, reviewing past agreements, taking the peace process to a logical end, the issue of ´civilian supremacy´, implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement including the issue of Integration and Rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants, constitution writing and power sharing.
Dr Bhattarai said political consensus and power-sharing should be an integral part of the peace process. "It is not a time of normal parliamentary exercise. We are in a phase of political transition; power-sharing is an integral part of this peace process, as is practiced around the world," Dr Bhattarai said, "Consensus should be reached in a package."
In the earlier series of meetings, the taskforce of the three political parties had worked on a joint resolution motion and agreed to take it to a meeting of the top leaders scheduled for Dec 15, but no such meeting took place.
According to NC General Secretary Bimalendra Nidhi, the leaders have given top priority to first settle the issues that are less controversial and move on negotiating more complex issues. "Maoists had set the issue of president´s move as the top priority, but they agreed to settle it at the end after the NC and UML proposed so saying that the issue is controversial," said Nidhi.
He said the leaders will hold a series of meetings to iron out the differences themselves and refer the complex issues to the top leaders.
Bhattarai justifies 4 months for integration
Commenting on Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal´s statement that Maoists have asked four months for the integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants, Dr Bhattarai said the issue is related to the whole peace process and constituent writing process.
"The deadline for the promulgation of a new constitution is around four months away and the integration issue is related to that process," he said. Nepal had claimed that Maoist chairman had asked him four months during their talks on December 22 to settle the integration and rehabilitation process.
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