As leaders struggle to meet the 27 May deadline to complete the constitution drafting process, major political parties have shown flexibility in making a decision and implementing the agreements. The leaders have agreed to amend Article 70 of the Interim Constitution to shorten the constitution endorsement process considering the limited time to complete the task Monday.
The Article states that each of the articles of the new constitution should be passed one-by-one by a two-thirds majority, which may takes months in deliberation and endorsement. Now, the government will table the amendment bill along with the bills on Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission of Inquiry on Disappearances. The next session of the parliament would be called as soon as the Law Ministry prepares bills.
NC has been saying the peace process should be completed by tomorrow to proceed with the constitution writing process. State restructuring, election system, forms of governance and judiciary are the outstanding issues in drafting of the new constitution. However, political parties have been saying the once the peace process moves forward it may not take time to sort out the constitutional issues.
The sense of urgency of the political parties came only after the Supreme Court decided that its term cannot be extended this time around. The bill on Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Disappearance Commission, which was gathering dust in the parliament for over five years and the PLA integration process are related to the peace process finally took the momentum.