Prachanda to lead high level cross-party committee in Nepal

Nepal's ruling parties have agreed to give away an important political committee's leadership to Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, chairman of the opposition party UCPN (Maoist), leaders here said Wednesday.

Leadership of High Level Political Committee (HLPC), a cross-party mechanism responsible for settling disputed issues related to peace and constitution drafting process, was a major demand of Prachanda since last year's second Constituent Assembly (CA) election, Xinhua reported.

The ruling and opposition parties signed a five-point agreement, ending the obstruction in the parliament, which has affected the constitution drafting process and endorsement of budgets.

HLPC is to play a vital role to resolve the political differences in Nepal.

Opposition parties have obstructed the parliament demanding the leadership of HLPC for one-and-a-half months.

Minister for Law and Justice Nara Hari Acharya said the government is ready to address the demand raised by opposition parties.

He said removal of obstruction helps to create an environment among parties.

Due to the growing mistrust among parties, the constitution drafting process is in crisis. In the agreement, ruling parties also agreed to provide relief packages to the war-era victims.

Opposition parties led by UCPN (Maoist) have announced the street protests would be held to press the parties to meet their demands that contentious issues should be settled through consensus among parties rather than voting process as advocated by the ruling parties.

As per the CA calendar, the parties should prepare a first draft of constitution by mid-October, which now seems impossible due to the differences among the parties.