Taskforce shelves transitional issues

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: The meeting of the seven-member taskforce today decided to defer issues of ‘transitional arrangement’ till all issues related to the executive, legislature and judiciary are settled.

“We decided to defer issues of transitional arrangement till issues of the executive, legislature and judiciary are sorted out,” said Ramesh Lekhak, a member of the team of experts assisting the taskforce. The parties have to agree whether or not the incumbent president, vice president, council of ministers, judges and political and constitutional appointments made under the Interim Constitution will remain functional after the new constitution comes into force.

The parties must also agree on the existing constitutional provision of ‘removing difficulties’. According to the Interim Constitution, it is the sitting president who removes such difficulties upon recommendation of the council of ministers. The Interim Constitution clearly mentions that head of the State and the council of ministers and constitutional bodies shall continue to remain functional during the transition period, which means they remain in place till they are effectively replaced on the basis of what the new constitution says. But the Interim Constitution has mentioned nothing about the Judiciary’s transitional arrangement. A thematic report of the Constitutional Committee has suggested overcoming such ‘double standard’.

Although the taskforce agreed that the federal legislature shall amend the constitution with two-third majority, it is yet to reach understanding on whether an approval of a majority of the provincial legislatures is required to make changes in the boundary and jurisdiction of any province.

Leaders of MJF-Nepal said distribution of population of the provinces, not their majority, should be the benchmark when their boundaries and jurisdictions are changed through constitutional amendment.

The parties were also at odds on the appointment of ambassadors. The UCPN-Maoist and the Madhesi parties insist on appointing them on ‘proportional’ basis while the NC, UML and other fringe parties opted for “inclusiveness”.

Narayanman Bijuckchhe, a taskforce member, claimed they had almost sorted out 75 percent contentious issues. “But crucial issues such as forms of government, restructuring of state along federal lines and election system, to name a few, remain unresolved,” Bijuckchhe said. He said the taskforce would have accomplished its tasks had leaders of major political parties spared enough time for meetings of the taskforce, whose tenure expired today.

Dev Gurung, a Maoist leader, hinted the taskforce would not get its tenure extended. But tomorrow’s 27-party meeting will decide whether or not to extend its tenure. He suggested that top leaders of major parties sit together to settle the remaining issues, which, he said, were of ideological and political nature.

Bijuckchhe, however, said the taskforce must get its tenure extended in order to further work on disputed issues. He said only half-a-dozen issues should go for voting in the full House of the Constituent Assembly.