Kathmandu: The Nepali Congress has decided not to participate in the meeting of the Constitutional Council convened by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Sunday.
Issuing a press statement today, Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that he is not ready to participate in the meeting. Stating that the ordinance on the Constitutional Council recently brought by the government was derived by vested interest of party.
“The Nepali Congress wants to make it clear that it will not participate in the meeting of the Constitutional Council as the leader of the main opposition party in the event of an ordinance attacking the very essence of the constitution and dismantling the constitutional structure,” statement reads.
Earlier, the secretariat of Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota had also stated that the Congress will not participate in Sunday’s meeting. Therefore, there has been protest after Prime Minister Oli brought an ordinance with the provision that the recommendation can be decided on the basis of majority.
The Constitutional Council, chaired by the Prime Minister, has the Speaker, the Chairperson of the National Assembly, the Chief Justice and the Leader of the Main Opposition as members.
The Congress is of the view that the present government has done wrong by repeatedly issuing ordinances on the Constitutional Council (Work, Duties, Rights and Procedures) by deceiving the Federal Parliament and reducing its scope of work by ending the dignity of the Constitutional Council.
There is a legal provision that the appointment to the Constitutional Commission should be done by consensus. But in the ordinance brought by the government, the appointment cannot be recommended as the Speaker and the Leader of the Opposition are absent.