Kathmandu,
Jan. 4: The High Level Political Committee (HLPC) has held discussions on
summoning the Constituent Assembly (CA) session at a time the Election
Commission (CA) has made public the list of CA members under the
first-past-the-post (FPTP) and Proportional Representation (PR) category.
After
a meeting of the committee held at the Peace Fund Secretariat in Babarmahal on
Saturday, political party leaders said the discussions was centered on
summoning the CA at the earliest after it has almost taken full shape.
However,
today's meeting did not dwell on who will call the first CA meeting and on
which date, they said.
Emerging
from the meeting, Nepali Congress (NC) Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel said
the meeting was focused on the topic of summoning of the CA meeting after the
EC finalized its work to give almost full shape to the CA.
CPN-UML
leader Raghuji Panta said that the meeting did not discuss who would summon the
meeting. Since the matter who should summon the CA meeting is already
sub-judice in the Supreme Court (SC), it makes no sense to hold further
discussions on the topic, he added.
With
the Election Commission unveiling the final name list of candidates elected to
the new CA under FPTP and PR system,
political parties are divided in their
views on who should summon the CA meeting. President Dr Ram Baran Yadav has also
started discussions about the matter with top leaders of major political
parties.
It
may be noted that the then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala had summoned
the first meeting of the previous CA in his capacity as the officiating head-
of- the- state. As per the constitutional provision, the first meeting of CA
shall be held within the 21 days of the publication of CA candidates' final
name list in the national gazette.
The
government is yet to nominate remaining 26 candidates to the 601-member CA.
Some
parties are advocating that as per the international tradition and previous
practice, the President shall call the CA meeting whereas some others are of
the opinion of following the constitutional provisions related to the matter.
Talking
to media persons after the meeting, UCPN (Maoist) leader Posta Bahadur Bogati
said the meeting discussed the issues of holding the CA meeting at the
earliest. Similarly, party's another leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha said the
matter of who will call the CA meeting was not discussed in the meeting.
"It would be better if the President also does not hold discussions about
the matter, as it has been already a legal issue and will be settled by the
court," he said.
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