POKHARA: Vice - Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Dr Baburam Bhattarai today said that statute drafting and army integration process should move ahead simultaneously. He warned that the peace process would be in peril and it would be against the Comprehensive Peace Accord if it were not done so.

Speaking at a press meet organised by Revolutionary Journalist Union Kaski in Pokhara he said the argument that 19 thousand combatants could not be integrated in the Nepali Army was wrong.

He said,'' We are ready to reduce the number of PLA if the government is ready to do the same in the Nepali Army.'' The army should be integrated scientifically, he added.

Claiming that the statute could not be drafted on time until the National Consensus government was formed, he said,'' All the problems would be solved only after the formation of national government headed by Maoist.''

Stating that that assurance of economic and social change was not possible until the assurance of political change, Bhattrai accused other political parties of hatching conspiracies to dissolve the CA by not drafting the statute within the stipulated time.