Thaindian News

By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu, March 5 (IANS) The panel of lawmakers entrusted with drafting the new constitution of Nepal Friday rapped three of the top political leaders on their knuckles, accusing them of not being serious about the statute as the nascent republic failed to keep a major date with destiny.

The Constitutional Committee, which has been mandated to write a new pro-people constitution by May, Friday ordered the chiefs of the three biggest political parties to be present at its next meeting scheduled Sunday without fail.

The three errant leaders, who despite being part of the committee have almost continuously skipped its meetings, are former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala, whose Nepali Congress (NC) is the biggest party in the ruling coalition, Jhalanath Khanal, chief of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist that is heading the alliance, and Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, whose Maoist party is the biggest party in parliament.

The octogenarian Koirala has stopped attending parliament and the Constitutional Committee’s meetings, reportedly due to illness.

However, he continues to hold several key posts, refusing to relinquish any.

Prachanda has been skipping major meetings citing party and personal work and is currently said to be ill as well.

Due to the disregard shown by the top leaders to the statute-drafting process, it is in total chaos and unlikely to meet the May 28 deadline, when it should be promulgated.

On Friday, the Constitutional Committee was to have tabled the first draft of the constitution, which is regarded as the cornerstone of the peace agreement that ended a decade of Maoist insurgency.

However, the committee is yet to start the work due to the failure of the parliamentary committees to submit their recommendations on the key aspects of the statute.

Only two of the 11 parliamentary committees have submitted their reports so far.

In the past, Nepal’s parliament, coming under growing fire from people because of its tardiness, amended the constitution nine times to extend deadlines that it continuously failed to meet. Now the schedule is headed for a 10th amendment with the Friday deadline failing as well.

The three top parties, still locked in a bitter tussle for power, are said to be now trying to extend the May 28 constitution deadline.

Former NC minister Ram Sharan Mahat this week told a local daily he did not feel the statute would be completed in time while Friday, Maoist parliamentarian Krishna Bahadur Mahara said in Dang district that a mini constitution could be promulgated on the May date.

But those parliamentarians who want the new statute in time say a “mini constitution” would be a meaningless document and the delay would stoke widespread public anger and probable violence.

The constitution provides that the May 28 deadline may be extended by six months in case of an emergency situation, like a civil war.

However, there is growing fear that the three parties will try to amend the interim constitution to extend the deadline by at least a year.