Kathmandu. The first meeting of the task force to prepare the constitution amendment discussion paper was held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on April 9, 2082.

The meeting presided over by Asim Shah, political advisor to Prime Minister Balendra Shah and coordinator of the task force, also decided to thank the government for forming a taskforce to prepare the constitution amendment debate.

Member Secretary (Joint Secretary at the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers) Liladhar Subedi has been assigned the responsibility of identifying the issues of constitution amendment by collecting the issues raised in the meeting and the written opinion of the political parties and preparing and presenting the future action plan of the taskforce.

In the meeting, coordinator Saha said that the taskforce has set a target to take ahead the issues related to constitution amendment in a comprehensive manner.

He said the constitution amendment process would be based on national consensus, participation and facts. Stating that Article 274 of the Constitution of Nepal has clearly mentioned about amendment, he clarified that there was no provision in the constitution that would go against the sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty vested in the people.

He also reminded that the meeting of the Council of Ministers on March 27 had decided to prepare a debate paper to build a national consensus on constitution amendment under the 100 agendas related to governance reforms.

As per the decision, a task force was formed under his leadership on March 30. According to coordinator Saha, participation of all political parties has been ensured to advance the constitution amendment process in principle and practically.

According to him, extensive discussions would be held on issues such as electoral system, directly elected executive, full proportional representation, provision of no lawmakers and ministers, non-party local government and reform of province structure.

On behalf of the Prime Minister, he assured all the political parties and citizens that the government would move ahead on the basis of consensus by holding dialogue with all sides.

Shah said he expressed the belief that all sides participating in the meeting would openly debate and take the responsibility to its logical conclusion.

The meeting was attended by representatives of various political parties. The meeting was attended by Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) lawmaker Mohan Acharya and CPN (UML) lawmaker Dr Bhattarai. Bhishmanath Adhikari, former minister of Nepali Communist Party Dev Prasad Gurung, Labour and Culture Party’s Dhruba Raj Rai, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP)’s Gyanendra Shahi, Janata Samajbadi Party’s Dr. Dr. Surendra Kumar Jha of the Democratic Socialist Party. Abhash Labh and Durga Poudel of Rastriya Janamorcha were also present on the occasion.