This time the CA has blissfully forgotten the calendar of events and failed to even update it since November.[break]
Seven months have been passed since the CA extended its term by one year on May 28, 2010. But, out of the total 17 programs set out in its calendar, the CA has so far accomplished only seven tasks. The rest of the work has to be done in the remaining five months of the extended tenure.
Officials at the CA secretariat believe that accomplishing the remaining tasks in the next five months while abiding by the procedures described in the CA regulations is simply impossible.
"Even if we skip some of the 17 procedural steps, we still have to broadly re-categorize the entire constitution-making into eight key stages that are unavoidable," Tek Prasad Dhungana, legal advisor to the CA secretariat, told Republica.
According to him, the stages are: preparing preliminary drafts from all the 11 thematic committees and holding deliberations in the CA on the preliminary drafts before forwarding them to the Constitutional Committee (CC); preparing an integrated draft incorporating all the 11 thematic drafts; and disseminating the first draft across the country. The CA has so far prepared all the thematic drafts and is holding deliberations on them.
In the fourth stage, the CA will receive people´s feedback on the draft. The CA will then hold deliberations on the public feedback and direct the CC to amend the draft as per the feedback. In the sixth stage, the lawmakers will be allowed to file amendments to clauses in the draft. The draft will then be tabled for clause-wise deliberations in the CA. It will be given a final touch endorsed by all 601 CA members and finally the president will promulgate it.
He said accomplishing these tasks is a must if the political parties want to write the new constitution as per the spirit of the CA that envisions drafting the statute with direct participation by the 601 lawmakers and also as per the feedback from the people.
"How can the political leadership decide to skip any of the key procedures like going to the people? Once the CA receives feedback from the people, that must also be incorporated," a source at the CA secretariat consistently involved in the statute drafting observed. "I don´t think the leaders can dare skip any of the key programs as that would kill the main essence of writing the constitution through the CA."
He said while most of the programs mentioned in the calendar are unavoidable, there is no possibility of adopting shortcuts either. "Last time, it took around 25 days to gather people´s feedback from across the country. It can´t be any quicker this time. Holding deliberations with the participation of 601 members will require time enough. Likewise, the amendment process and other procedures will be unavoidable," the source said.
"The nature of the essential tasks still to be done, the procedures to be followed as per provisions in CA regulations and the working style of political parties in the CA clearly indicate that the remaining time is not going to be enough," Dhungana said.
Though the high-level taskforce formed by the 27-party mechanism settled 127 out of the 210 disputes over constitution writing, the key contentious issues are yet to be resolved.
CC Chairman Nilamber Acharya said the leaders´ tendency to skirt key issues and waste time over minor things has gotten the CA nowhere. "We are yet to determine key issues like system of governance -- presidential or prime ministerial model, electoral system and judiciary," he said. Acharya said the CA must prioritize its work instead of working randomly if the new constitution is to be promulgated in the remaining time.
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