Nepal parties seek more time to settle statute row

Kathmandu, April 23 (IANS) Major political parties of Nepal Monday sought two more days to thrash out contentious issues that have held up their constitution drafting.

The Himalayan country's political parties have extended the Constituent Assembly's (CA) term thrice earlier, though they had in 2008 agreed to complete the drafting of the statute book within two years.

During a meeting of the Dispute Resolution Sub-Committee Monday, Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)(UCPN-M) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal a.k.a Prachanda, who also heads the committee, proposed for two more days to settle the yet to be resolved issues of constitution drafting, Nepal's newspaper ekantipur reported.

The constitutional committee and the sub-committee have been summoned to meet Wednesday, said Ram Chandra Poudel, Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party leader.

During Monday's meeting, political parties came closer over the issues on judiciary, citizenship provision and electoral system. They were, however, divided on the issues of state restructuring and forms of governance.

Prachanda, during this meet, also proposed to endorse the already resolved issues of the new constitution in the assembly session April 26. The yet to be resolved issues would be decided through voting the same day.