KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 20

As the country celebrated Constitution Day, constitutional experts and political leaders demanded a panel to recommend amendments to the constitution.

Senior Advocate Laxman Lal Karna, also senior leader of Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, said, "This constitution was promulgated amidst huge protests in Madhes.

Major parties promised to amend it to address grievances, but they have not fulfilled their pledge." Karna added that he expected political leaders to discuss changes sought in the constitution.

"I expected political leaders to express readiness to form a committee to identify issues that needed to be changed," he said.

Karna said the simmering religious tension between Christians and Hindus in Dharan and between Hindus and Muslims in Madhes districts did not bode well and major political leaders should find solutions to these problems.

Senior Advocate Purna Man Shakya said if implementation of the constitution was slow, it was because political parties and their leaders were not sincere.

"People should, through their voting rights, teach a lesson to the parties for not implementing the constitution," Shakya said and added that the central government's reluctance to enact umbrella laws had adversely affected the province governments' service delivery. "Provinces have failed to meet people's expectations because the kind of umbrella laws that give them the needed resources and autonomy have not been enacted," he added.

Shakya said major political parties were busy making or breaking coalitions at the centre and they should be held responsible for failing to implement federalism.

Senior Advocate Chandra Kanta Gyawali said two periodic elections after promulgation of the constitution, lasting of federal and provincial governments for full fiveyear term and Madhesi forces' gradual acceptance of the constitution were achievements, but there were issues that needed to be addressed.He said the current mixed election system led to the formation of hung parliament both at the federal and province levels and it would be better if the constitution was amended to introduce 100 per cent first-past-thepost system where women, Dalits and other disadvantaged groups could be given reservation in certain percentage of constituencies.Gyawali said the Supreme Court's interpretation in the HoR dissolution case, and case filed against the vote of confidence obtained by then Chief Minister of Koshi Uddhav Thapa had helped positively in the evolution of the new constitution.

Gyawali said the federal government enacted laws to enable people to enjoy their fundamental rights, but some regulations had not yet been framed. "The federal government did not do enough to ensure the implementation of federalism. It failed to enact the Police Act, Federal Civil Service Act, and Education Act in time," he added.

He said the government must ensure that all umbrella laws and laws required to implement fundamental rights were enacted in the current session of Parliament.

Gyawali said people needed to feel change in their socio-economic status. For such changes, the federal and provincial governments should bring revolutionary changes in industry, agriculture and other sectors to generate employment.

Senior Advocate Mithilesh Kumar Singh said parties should seek to amend the constitution, particularly to change the election system.

"The current election system is very expensive so this must change. To increase the representation of marginalized groups, a certain percentage of FPTP electoral districts could be reserved for targeted groups, he argued. Singh said amendments should be made to the constitution as per the requirement of time. If that happened, that would make the constitution dynamic.

"US constitution has been amended 27 times and the Indian constitution 105 times. Why can't we amend our constitution? he wondered.

"Provinces have failed to meet expectations because the kind of umbrella laws that give them the needed resources and autonomy has not been enacted and major parties are too busy making or breaking coalitions at the center"

A version of this article appears in the print on September 21, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.