CA rules of procedure: Row over details may hit business

KATHMANDU, JAN 13 -

The Constituent Assembly and Legislative-Parliament rules of procedures have emerged as sticking points among the political parties that are likely to delay the house business.

Political leaders and constitution experts say the parties should get down to work immediately to amend both the rules so that the parties can focus on the constitution drafting process after the first meeting of the CA .

In 2008, it took more than five months to finalise the CA rules of procedure and leaders fear of the history repeating itself. Leaders say it is another thorny issue after the dispute over the calling of the first CA meeting which has already consumed considerable time after the November 19 election.    

A senior official at the CA secretariat said it will be difficult to promulgate a new constitution within a year unless the parties start working on the rules on time. Despite some technical issues, the official said, it is up to the political parties to finalise the contents through consensus.

“We have past experiences of parties taking several weeks even to settle minor issues while preparing CA regulations in 2008. We have seen a clear sign of dispute this time also,” said the official.    

Some of the parties have already floated new ideas to be incorporated into the CA rules of procedures that require all-party consensus.

The UCPN (Maoist) has proposed that CA chair and vice-chair have equal power. The party is of the view that in the dissolved CA , the vice-chairperson lacked executive powers as all powers were centred in the chairman.

“Some of the CA rules of procedure should be amended. We need to take a balanced approach while allocating responsibilities to chairman and vice-chairman,” Maoist leader Giriraj Mani Pokhrel said.

It is not clear how the Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-UML will react to Maoist’s fresh demand. Under the current provision, the duty of Vice-chairman is limited to holding a CA meeting in the absence of Chairman.

Another contentious issue among the party is about taking the ownership of the progress made by the dissolved CA and incorporating them into the CA rules.

While the parties, in principle, are ready to take the past ownership but yet to agree on the procedural aspects. The Congress has proposed only three thematic committees in the new CA with a view that having more committees will affect its commitment to promulgate a new constitution within a year. There were 11 thematic committees in the previous CA .

“We can form a separate committee inside the CA to review the performances and link its task to the second CA ,” said Sadbhawana Party leader Laxman Lal Karna, who was involved in the finalisation of the CA rules. “We should get down to work of forming a cross-party committee immediately. That will lead to a swift endorsement of the rules after the first CA meeting, and consequently expedite the constitution drafting process.”

Party leaders are keen to make changes to the CA rules to fast track the constitution drafting process.

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N) has already said that the provision of settling the disputes through majority should be removed from the CA regulation.