Kathmandu: With barely hours left for the
term of the Constituent Assembly to end, Nepal sank close to
political chaos today with the rival parties deadlocked over
an agreement on extension and a last minute meeting of the
lawmakers failing to take off.
The lawmakers had planned a last minute meeting to avert
a crisis. But the meeting failed to take off and officials did
not give any reason for why the meeting had not taken off.
But the move for a late compromise fell through after the
Maoists made it clear they would vote against the extension of
the Constituent Assembly.
The Unified CPN-Maoist Standing committee has directed
its members not to vote in favour of the Assembly extension
unless the Prime Minister tenders his resignation.
"There is no meaning in extending the term unless the
Prime Minister resigns to guarantee peace and constitution
making", Maoist spokesman Dinanath Sharma declared.
Informal meetings are going on as last minute efforts to
sort out differences, political sources said.
With uncertainty looming large, whether a state of
emergency would be declared and President`s Rule imposed, the
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal`s office refuted reports
that he had resigned.
In a statement, his Press advisor Bishnu Rijal said some
people had used his fake e-mail address to issue "a fake
statement" about the Prime Minister, having told the
Parliament that he was going to resign.
"This is totally false and baseless", the statement said.
The two year term of the Constituent Assembly is set to
end by mid-night today and the country`s Assembly was meant to
draft a new constitution to guide the country through the
years of civil war and upheaval, but the Constituent Assembly
had been deadlocked.
An emergency meeting of the Assembly summoned by
President Ram Baran Yadav failed to secure a breakthrough. Two
years of bickerings among the political parties has produced
no agreement on the wording of the new constitution and the
Maoists who hold the highest number of seats are refusing to
vote for a bill to extend the term of the Constituent
Assembly, unless the Prime Minister stands down.
Even a last miniute appeal by the UN Secretary General
Ban-ki Moon urging the leaders to put national interest first
failed to impact the lawmakers.
PTI
