“We are at the final stage of the peace process. So we will focus on settling the issues in a package,” Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai told Republica.[break]
He said integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants would conclude very soon, but added that an inter-party package agreement is a must to take the overall peace process to a logical end.
The Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-UML have clearly stated that the constitution drafting process will not move ahead without the Maoist-led government concluding the integration and rehabilitation of the combatants first.
“The remaining tasks of the constitution drafting could be accomplished in a week. But the combatants should be integrated first. Constitution drafting cannot move ahead under the shadow of gun,” UML leader had stated at a meeting of the dispute resolution subcommittee under the Constitutional Committee.
The UCPN (Maoist), particularly the party´s Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, on the other hand, is trying play the PLA integration card to bargain over certain constitutional issues, including the direct election of the executive president and power-sharing.
The prime minister said the Maoists will, as per the gentleman´s agreement, head the government until the peace and constitution drafting process is concluded and then hand over government leadership to NC for general elections.
“We will discuss mechanism for power-sharing during the three-party meeting,” said Bhattarai, adding it will be unfortunate for the country if the parties expend their energies to topple the government before the peace process and constitution drafting concludes.
The prime minister also expressed his displeasure over the parties´ criticism of him for bringing making public the Nepal Army (NA)´s detailed proposal on integration.
“The Special Committee has given me the mandate to prepare the details for integration and I had directed the concerned authorities to work toward that end,” he said.
Bhattarai said all his party has demanded is the representation of the PLA at the policy making level in the NA directorate, and argued that such a representation would facilitate smooth integration of the PLA combatants. “But this is not a big problem. It will be solved soon,” he said.
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