KATHMANDU, APRIL 8
Speaker Devraj Ghimire today held a meeting with the top leadership of the three major parties - the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre - to discuss some crucial bills, including the Truth and Reconciliation Act (Amendment) bill that the government wants the Parliament to pass soon.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN- UML Chair KP Sharma Oli were present at the meeting.
Emerging from the meeting, PM Dahal who is also the CPN- MC Chair, told mediapersons that they agreed in principle to forge consensus on the TRC bill but as some legal and technical aspects were also involved, they would hold ameeting with the parties where some legal experts would also give their opinion on the bill.
Asked if the TRC bill would be sent to the relevant committee of the Parliament, the PM said that an agreement would be reached on Tuesday after discussing the issue with legalexperts.
"We, the partners of the ruling alliance, want the TRC bill to pass through the fast-track process from the full House, but the main opposition wants the bill to be sent to the relevant committee and there isalso the opinion that we should look for the middle path to pass the bill," the PM added.
CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli told mediapersons that it would probably not be appropriate to pass the bill through fast-track process from the full House.
"The bill should be sent to the House panel," Oli said and added that it was only a preliminary discussion and the discussion was positive.
Oli said they also discussed ways to conduct the Parliament in effective and dynamicway and to resolve the current problems.
Speaker Ghimire said he had called the meeting as talks were not being held between the major parties on some important issues.
The government registered the TRC bill after the Supreme Court looked into a case some petitioners had filed against PM Dahal for his statement of January 2020 in which he had said he could take the responsibility only for 5,000 insurgency-era deaths not 17,000.
Conflict victims and rights activists say victims would not get justice if the bill was passed in its current form.
One major argument that they have presented on the bill is that it has failed to address the statute of limitation issue on sexual violence issues and cases of enforced disappearance.
The issue is whether to fast-track the bill or send it to the relevant House panel
A version of this article appears in the print on April 9, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
