The three-point pact between the three parties signed just before midnight on Friday reads like a UN resolution, and indeed what held things up till the last moment was semantics. They were haggling about whether the prime minister should "resign" or be "ready to resign". There is nothing in it that couldn't have been agreed on six months ago. Instead it was left to, literally, the last minute and the Nepali people were put through the pain and torture of indefinite strikes, neglect of the economy, apathy, lack of development, and the malgovernance that comes with shaky politics.

Still, we tend to always look at the bright side and say: "It could be worse." A failure to extend the term of the CA would have been potentially much more disastrous. It would have been a victory for those who do not believe in the democratic process and the cynics who saw the CA members as a bunch of lazy parasites when it was actually the party leadership that was calling the shots. It would have encouraged the military and the militants. The extremists would have been ecstatic. If the CA term had not been extended, the country would have plunged into even bigger chaos. Once more, our political leaders have managed to extricate themselves from the quagmire they got themselves into. No one has any doubt that they'll get stuck in the quicksand again, but for now they have bought themselves time.

The first order of business is to not forget how close we came to disaster. The three-point pact should be taken seriously. It means the peace process should be steered back on track, expediting the demobilisation of Maoist fighters, reorienting the YCL away from violence and returning stolen private property. Although the CA has been extended by a year, we should not wait one year to do all that.

The constitution has its own set of problems. One more year will allow time to resolve the contentious issues like government structure and the potentially implosive ethnic federalism proposal.

It doesn't really matter who gets to be prime minister and who is going to be in which ministry. More than anything else, the new consensus government must turn its attention to rescuing a teetering economy, creating jobs and ensuring development. Only that will ensure that the government which follows will not be threatened by public anger and disaffection.

The Three-point Pact

1. We are committed to consensus and cooperation to complete the peace process and the historical responsibility of writing the new constitution.

2. We will extend the CA term by one year since we need to finish what we started with.

3. We agree to move forward by forming a government of national consensus after the resignation as soon as possible of the prime minister and his coalition.