IMMEDIATE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PM AND MAIN OPPOSITION SURFACES

DIFFERENCES SURFACE BETWEEN PM, NC; FURTHER DETAILS OF POLITICAL BREAKTHROUGH

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 29 May: Differences between Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal, who is also chairman of UML, and main opposition NC on the timing of the incumbent government’s resignation surfaced immediately after a bill was passed in parliament Sunday to amend an interim to extend the constituent assembly (CA) tenure by only three months.
Khanal said he will resign to pave the way for a national government only when an environment is created’ for formation of a successor government while NC parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel demanded ‘immediate’ resignation of the premier..
Khanal also said he ‘won’t be a hurdle for a new government of national unity In the next three months, major parties have to complete tasks they couldn’t or didn’t do in the last three years.
“The assembly has finally been saved at the 11th hour,” said one leader.
The responsibilities won’t be completed if the Big Three-Maoists, NC and UML—again concentrate their entire attention, as they did in the last 12 months, holding on to power or attaining it; hardly any attention was spared for constitution drafting.
A bill to amend article 64 of an interim constitution to enable the parties to extend the CA tenure was approved the same day three years when parliament declared a constitution.
That declaration hasn’t been institutionalized in a basic law.
“Now the peace process will now be completed in one to two months,” said Chairman of MJFN, the largest party in the five-party Loktatrik Madeshbadi Morcha Bijaya Kumar Gachedhar said.
Assmebly members claim 80 percent of assembly work has been completed but political players differ on fundamentals to be incorporated in a basic law.
Maoists are pushing for a communist state opposed by liberal democrats; agreements of a federal state structure and even a government system—parliamentary or presidential—have been elusive.
Parties accommodated demands to reach the agreement Sunday morning.
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