KATHMANDU: The Constituent Assembly Secretariat today prepared a draft of contents of the new constitution as instructed by yesterday’s meeting of Constitution Drafting Committee.

The CDC meeting had instructed the secretariat to prepare the draft by incorporating the reports of its five sub-panels. The reports have included issues agreed upon in the 16-point deal of the four parties and additional issues agreed and not agreed at the level of the sub-committees.

“We have prepared the contents as they should appear in the new constitution. Agreed issues are included as they are and blanks or question marks are given to fill in at the place of the issues that are yet to be agreed on,” said committee Secretary Ravi Sharma Aryal.

Yesterday’s CDC meeting had decided to settle the disputed issues through a task force headed by CDC Chairman Krishna Prasad Sitaula.

“The task force is scheduled to meet tomorrow and begin the task of settling the remaining issues by the CDC’s next meeting slated for June 22,” said Hitaraj Pande, a taskforce member from Unified CPN-Maoist.

The task force is preparing to hold a meeting with top leaders of the four parties – Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, Unified CPN-Maoist and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum -Democratic – that struck the 16-point deal to settle the disputed issues, according to sources.

Some key disputed issues are: whether the office bearers of constitutional bodies, including justices of Supreme Court, should be reappointed after promulgation of the new constitution for the transitional period till new appointments are made as per the new statute; whether

to retain the existing districts as service centres; whether to mention the provision related to autonomous regions — protected regions and special regions under special structure to protect underprivileged/backward/minority groups or let the concerned state assemblies bring separate laws on this; and whether to include pluralism in the Preamble or under the section of the Executive.