KATHMADNU, July 31

The five-member High-Level Special Committee formed by the Constitutional-Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee discussed all day on Friday how they could incorporate the public feedback received on the draft constitution into the final draft of the constitution, but failed to forge consensus.

CPDCC Chairman Baburam Bhattarai told mediapersons at the meeting venue that the Special Committee received a report by the committee’s task force on the public feedback and it would discuss the report tomorrow. He said the committee would try to reach an agreement on the constitutional issues tomorrow.

Bhattarai said parties had divergent views on some of the constitutional issues of political nature but the Special Committee would try to forge consensus on as many issues as possible.

When asked which issues the parties were still divided on, Bhattarai said, “You all know on which issues the parties have divergent views.”

Special Committee to meet this morning and CPDCC in the afternoon

Bhattarai said the Special Committee would exist till the promulgation of the constitution and the committee would try to forge consensus on constitutional issues till the last moment.

A member of the Special Committee told THT that leaders put forth their parties’ position on some major constitutional issues, and therefore, they failed to reach an agreement on Friday.

In response to a question, Bhattarai said the 16-point agreement paved the way for the preliminary draft.

The task force created by the Special Committee discussed the public feedback in detail and presented its report to the committee in the evening.

Task force member Rekha Sharma said the task force settled the language issue in the draft constitution, but could not agree on some issues including religion. “We gave a summary report on Friday, but will prepare a detailed report tomorrow,” she added.

Nepali Congress President and Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, NC Vice-president Ramchandra Paudel, CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli, Unified CPN-Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, senior UCPN-M leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha, CPDCC Chairman Bhattarai and Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic Chairman Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar held discussion all day on Friday.

Their meeting took place twice on Friday — first from early in the morning till 4.30pm and second from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.

Task force coordinator Bhim Rawal said they discussed all the feedback that the Constituent Assembly received and listed the issues settled by the task force and issues to be settled by the Special Committee or the CPDCC.

Earlier, Paudel told mediapersons that leaders had expressed their opinion on all issues but they were yet to reach an agreement on 3-4 issues, including federalism and religion. “We all expressed our views on public feedback and we are in agreement that people’s sentiment should be respected,” Paudel added.

Oli said the committee would settle the matter by tomorrow and constitution would be promulgated.

The Special Committee will hold its meeting tomorrow morning, while CPDCC will hold its meeting at 3:00pm tomorrow.

Names and boundaries of the federal units, citizenship, inclusion and religion and election constituencies are some of the major issues that parties have not been able to forge consensus on.