KATHMANDU: The mainstream political parties, including the CPN-Maoist Center, CPN-UML, and main opposition Nepali Congress (NC), have resumed the long-stalled discussions on the amendment of the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act.
On Thursday, top leaders and chief whips from three major parties agreed to finalize the amendment bill, which is currently under review by the Law, Justice, and Human Rights Commission of the House of Representatives.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ took initiations to resume the talks on Thursday.
According to Prime Minister Dahal’s Secretariat, the leaders decided to assign the chief whips of the three major parties the task of finding common ground on the contentious provisions in the bill.
Prime Minister Dahal, NC President and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, and UML Chairman and former Prime Minister KP Oli entrusted the cross-party team with this responsibility.
Initially, the Maoist-Congress alliance had unanimously supported the bill’s endorsement, but the UML was not ready to proceed without revisions ensuring adherence to international standards and prohibiting amnesty.
The two parties accused the UML of politicizing the matter and creating barriers to its endorsement.
The dynamics shifted when Dahal broke his year-long alliance with NC and formed a coalition with the UML and the Rabi Lamichhane-led Rastriya Swatantra Party on March 4.
Since then, NC has been reluctant to proceed with the bill.
As a result, there had been no discussion on the bill since March 3, a day before the previous coalition broke apart.
However, with NC’s readiness to prioritize the issue and handle it in consensus has opened the chances of leading the Bill ahead for amendment.
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