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| Kathmandu, Thursday February 13, 2003 Falgun 01, 2059. |
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Four parties, including UML,
demand for House revival
Yuvaraj Acharya
KAHMANDU, Feb 12 The four major political
parties today appeared moving closer in demanding revival of House of Representatives.
A meeting of Communist Party of Nepal, Unified
Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML), Nepali Congress, Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party
and People’s Front Nepal decided that the dissolved House should be revival in order
to end the current political impasse.
The CPN-UML puts seal of approval on the demand
for the House revival as the first option, but reiterated that formation of an all-party
government should be the next alternative.
"We agreed that the king has an option
either to reinstate the dissolved House of Representatives or to form an all-party
government, " said Madhav Kumar Nepal, the General Secretary of CPN-UML.
The meeting also asked the king and the Maoists
to clarify their stance on the four critical issues, namely, people as the repository of
sovereignty, constitutional monarchy, multiparty system, human rights and the rule of law.
"It is important that the Maoists and the
king make their positions clear on these issues," said a press release issued after
the meeting.
Amik Sherchan, chairman of People’s Front
Nepal, said the difference among the four parties on the issue of correction of the
October 4 royal move have now ended with today’s meeting.
The meeting also decided to go ahead with the
joint movement "to transfer power back to people;" however, it could not agree
on the modality and timeframe of the joint movement. "The leaders agreed to decide
the specifics of the movement in the next meeting," says the press release.
Narayan Man Bijukchhe, convener of the meeting
and NWPP chairman, said the meeting stressed on the need to guard the present situation to
avoid any anti-people agreements between the Maoists and the king.
He said that the NWPP has proposed a
non-cooperation movement against the present government at all levels. "Discussion on
the issue would take place in next meeting," Bijukchhe said.
A joint press statement issued after the meeting
also stated that all the parties would boycott the government’s programmes. They also
decided not to cooperate with the anti-graft mobile teams formed by the government nearly
a month ago.
The meeting, however, took the cease-fire
agreement arrived between the government and the Maoists as a positive step. "But
there are several questions to be answered regarding the whole process," the press
statement said.
The meeting also urged the Maoists not to hold
any round-table meetings at local level before an agreement is reached at the national
level.
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