The meeting of political parties of the Constituent Assembly (CA) today failed to agree on the consensus already reached in the high-level political task force on provisions relating to the judicial system and citizenship in the new constitution.
The task force had agreed on a separate mechanism for appointment of the Chief Justice and office-bearers of constitutional bodies. The Maoists are now insisting that the mechanism should also appoint other judges of the Apex Court while the other parties support a body similar to the current Judicial Council for appointment of other Supreme Court judges.
Likewise, small parties including the Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP) and Rastriya Janamorcha recommended reforms in the citizenship provisions, arguing that the provisions made it easy for foreigners to acquire a Nepali citizenship. They also proposed distribution of citizenship in two ways- from the centre and the provinces.
Questions were also raised about the inequality in the provisions of citizenship as proposed in the Committee report for Nepali men marrying a foreigner woman and Nepali women marrying a foreigner man.
The parties have agreed to hold further discussion in order to resolve the contentious issues.