According to sources at the prime minister´s office at Baluwatar, the prime minister urged Dahal to float the proposals for discussion at a meeting of top leaders from three major political parties -- UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML -- which the prime minister wants to hold within a couple of days.
Reaching Dahal´s residence at Nayabazar for the first time since becoming prime minister, Khanal pressed the Maoist chairman to act with a sense of urgency as the government was walking a tightrope.[break]
"The prime minister reached Nayabazar to pressure Dahal to act as per the responsibility of a major stakeholder in the peace process," the Baluwatar source told Republica.
Opposition as well as ruling parties have been pressing the government to fix the number of former Maoist combatants to be integrated into government security agencies and those to be rehabilitated in society, define the norms and standards of integration, announce the rehabilitation package and regroup the ex-combatants into the two categories prior to reaching any agreement on extending the Constituent Assembly term, which is expiring on May 28. The Nepali Congress, Madhes-based parties and some other opposition parties have said they wouldn´t consent to extending the CA term without first settling these thorny issues.
The government already registered a bill at the parliament secretariat Thursday to extend the CA term. The government move has been challenged by major opposition as well as ruling parties, accusing the prime minister of reaching the decision without the consent of the opposition parties.
Sources claim the prime minister wants to settle the thorny issues of the peace process within couple of days so that he would not find himself red-faced at the UML´s politburo meeting, which is scheduled to resume on May 21.
At the politburo meeting earlier this month, Khanal was fiercely criticized by almost all the members who spoke on the occasion for allocating the home ministry to the Maoists against the UML decision.
At the politburo and the central committee (CC) meeting, which is scheduled to start from May 23, UML leaders are likely to give him a hard time for allowing a Maoist leader to head the home ministry without first making tangible progress in the peace process.
UML leaders from Khanal´s rival faction led by former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and KP Sharma Oli have stood against the government decision to register the bill on CA term extension without holding any discussion within the UML and without taking the opposition parties into confidence.
Sensing that his rivals within and outside the party may gang up against him, Khanal wants to defuse the threat by introducing a concrete plan of action for concluding the peace process.
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