Kathmandu, April 26

Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subas Chandra Nembang Thursday urged all leaders to avoid the voting procedure on the contentious issues of the statute and find concrete results for the constitution promulgation through consensus.

Speaking at an interaction, "The role of media in peace, constitution and democratization", organized by Press Chautari Nepal in collaboration with FES, Nembang suggested the leaders they should hold result-oriented dialogues during the added two days’ period as the frequent dialogues held among leaders had failed to achieve desired outcomes in the past.

The task of bringing out new constitution draft will be easier if the parties reach consensus as soon as possible, he said.

Nembang emphasized

that the leaders must go to the people even with a preliminary draft of the constitution by the deadline. He also urged all political parties to stop internal disputes for the sake of peace and constitution.

The new constitution should be inclusive and should also include federalism, he said. "Such as constitution is possible if all parties agree on it."

Stating that the peace and constitution processes were moving in right direction in recent times, he expressed his confidence that the constitution would be promulgated within the deadline.

The Nepali media has played important roles during several political movements in the past and it can play constructive role in peace building and constitution writing too, he added. "The freedom of press is guaranteed only when democracy is institutionalized."

Pradeep Gayawali, chief of CPN-UML publicity department, said the decision to handover Maoist combatants to Nepal Army on March 10 was an important and relevant step to complete peace and constitution writing processes.

He said that it was nothing but a biased outlook to suspect the Nepal Army’s way of functioning and urged the Maoists’ Baidhya faction to take the right decisions on army integration positively.

The nation had to pay dearly in the past because of the delay in peace and constitution writing processes and the country may suffer unimaginable crisis if the uncertainties over peace and constitution linger on for long, he added.

Leader of Nepali Congress Arjun Narsingh K.C. urged all to be positive towards the ongoing political process, which is currently moving towards right direction and was expected to produce desired results.

He ensured that constitution would be promulgated within the deadline because the parties had come closure than before with an environment of trust.

Dev Prasad Gurung, leader of UCPN-Maoist, blamed that the government had gone against the spirit of the Interim Constitution after handing the Maoist cantonments to the Nepali Army. It was not an integration but surrender, he said adding the decision of March 10 had come unexpectedly.

Senior journalist Mahendra Bista presented a paper on role of media in democracy at the programme, presided over by Press Chautari Nepal President Gagan Bista.

Likewise, FES Nepal chief Devraj Dahal, FJN president Shiv Gaunle, senior journalist Kundal Aryal, Nepal Press Union President Kiran Pokharel, Revolutionary Students Union President Maheshwor Dahal expressed that the media should play constructive role in peace building and constitution writing.