Addressing the parliament meeting on Friday, Nepali Congress (NC) parliamentary party leader Paudel argued that Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal shouldn´t dillydally any longer as the government has already become a caretaker one. [break]
The five-point deal, which Khanal signed himself before the extension of the CA term on Saturday night, says the prime minister would resign to pave the way for the formation of national consensus government.
“Being one of the signatories of the five-point agreement, the prime minister should have tendered his resignation then and there,” Paudel said at the House meeting on Friday.
Emphasizing the need for transforming the UCPN (Maoist) into a civilian party, he said most of the contentious issues with regard to the peace process would be resolved once the former rebel party becomes ready to renounce violence in practice and detach itself with its arms and armies. He said the problems lie in the Maoist leaders´ reluctance to implement the past agreements.
Explaining the meaning of “basic tasks to be undertaken in the next three months” as mentioned in the five-point deal, Paudel said, “The cantonments [where the Maoist combatants have been staying for over four years] should be vacated and the containers [where the Maoist´s arms are stored] should be emptied.”
Maoist leader Lokendra Bista Magar said the Maoists would never accept other parties´ condition to handover arms prior to integrating the combatants. He urged leaders from other parties to agree to a basic fact that armies can´t be separated from their arms. “Separating army personnel from their weapons and uniform is just like depriving a person from his/her clothes,” Magar said. “Therefore, the combatants´ integration and handover of the arms should be done simultaneously.”
Responding to Magar´s argument, NC leader Narahari Acharya said if they are to buy Magar´s argument, the parties should be ready to fix the number of combatants to be integrated into the government security forces as per the number of weapons they possess. “Then, let´s abide by the “one man one weapon” principle with regard to fixing the number,” Acharya said.
Chief Whip of Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP), Brijesh Kumar Gupta, seconded Acharya. “The total number of registered Maoist weapons is 3,428. Therefore, let´s be ready to integrate the Maoist combatants based on the same number and forget about the Maoists claim of over 19,000 combatants,” he said.
Addressing the same meeting, UML Lawmaker Rabindra Adhikari demanded that the progresses made with regard to the peace process and the constitution drafting be presented periodically in the House.
“The progresses made by the subcommittee formed to settle disputes in constitution writing and the works done by the government´s special committee with regard to advancing the peace process be presented at least once a week in the House meeting,” he said.
He was of the view that lawmakers who are mandated to make the new constitution should not be unaware of the problems and progress on the matter.
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