The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly (CA) convened at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in New Baneshwor today to formally begin drafting of the new constitution. Surya Bahadur Thapa, the senior-most member of CA, chaired the meeting which unanimously endorsed the proposal of the 2008 CA regulations to conduct CA and house business until a new regulations is formulated.
Thapa stressed on the need to draft the constitution on time to give a new lease of life to a country suffering from political turmoil. “It is also necessary to draft the constitution to make the tenure of the CA members successful. Otherwise, history will deem us irresponsible and a failure,” Thapa said.
The meeting also formed a panel of CA members comprising of Man Bahadur Bishwokarma, Bikram Pandey, Bidhya Bhandari, Man Kumar Subba, among others, for chairing the CA meeting in Thapa’s absence and until a chairman and vice chairman of the new CA are elected.
The new CA is yet to attain its full shape of 601 members as the 26 CA members to be nominated by the cabinet are yet to be finalised while Election Commission is scheduled to hold by-election in four constituencies to replace the four members who have won the election from two constituencies.
The second meeting of the assembly will be held on 29 January.