KATHMANDU: A government-formed task force assigned to prepare the groundwork for a national debate on constitutional amendment has submitted its report to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.
The task force, coordinated by Prime Minister Balendra Shah’s political adviser Asim Shah, handed over the report along with a “Constitution Amendment Discussion Paper” on Thursday.
The Council of Ministers had formed the task force on March 30. It was mandated to prepare a discussion paper aimed at building national consensus on constitutional amendment as part of the government’s 100-point governance reform agenda unveiled on March 27.
The task force began its work on April 8 and completed the report within its extended deadline.
During the drafting process, the panel held 22 formal meetings and several informal consultations. It conducted direct consultations with 184 experts, including former presidents, former prime ministers, leaders of political parties, constitutional and legal experts, former justices, former attorneys general, former law secretaries, former bureaucrats, women representatives, journalists, and private sector representatives.
The task force also collected written suggestions from more than 150 institutions, including constitutional bodies, the Office of the Attorney General, provincial and local governments, the Nepal Bar Association, and various religious and social organizations.
To encourage public participation, the task force invited suggestions through an online portal. It received 44,613 digital submissions via email and WhatsApp from Nepalis living both inside the country and abroad. Additional feedback was also gathered through telephone and other electronic means.
According to the task force, the report was prepared after reviewing historical documents related to Nepal’s constitution-making process, reports of Constituent Assembly committees, national and international practices, and judicial precedents. The collected suggestions were categorized into 20 thematic areas before being compiled into a report with an executive summary.
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