Nepal constitution drafting body given two weeks for consensus

Nepal's Constituent Assembly today gave two more weeks' time to a key political panel to forge consensus on contentious issues of the new Constitution.
After four days of deliberations, the assembly has extended the deadline of the Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (PDCC) by September end, at the request of the major political parties, Nepali Congress Vice-president Ramchandra Poudyal said.
The PDCC was formed to forge consensus on the contentious issues of constitution drafting.
The key contentious issues of constitution writing, including forms of governance, state restructuring, number of federal units and judiciary, are yet to be sorted out.
Addressing the Constituent Assembly meeting, CA Chairman Subas Nemwang said the political parties should settle contentious issues coming in the way of drafting the new constitution by the end of September.

Earlier, the parties had set August-end as deadline but they failed to settle the contentious issues by that time.
Though more time has been allocated for parties to forge consensus on key issues, the drafting process will not be hampered as the drafting process and consensus efforts would continue simultaneously.
The final deadline of promulgating the Constitution, January 22 next year, has not been changed, senior Nepali Congress leader Poudyal said.