Nepal House gets 3 more months,PM to quit

Nepals key parties struck a last-minute deal to extend the term of the Constituent Assembly.

Averting a major constitutional crisis,Nepals key parties on Sunday struck a last-minute deal to extend the term of the Constituent Assembly by three months. As part of the deal,Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal,who assumed office about four months back,will step down to pave way for a national unity government.

The breakthrough came after overnight consultations between the three main political parties Nepali Congress,Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists and CPN-UML. At 4 am on Sunday,CPN-UML leader and former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal,Maoist chief Prachanda and Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala finally signed a five-point agreement on the peace process and extended the term of the Constituent Assembly which ended Saturday night.

Besides Khanals resignation,the parties also agreed that the fundamental issues of the peace process should be completed by three months,along with the completion of the first comprehensive draft of the new Constitution.

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At 5:20 am,Speaker Subhash Nembang declared the official Bill to extend the term of the Constituent Assembly by three more months.

President Ram Baran Yadav put his seal of approval 40 minutes later,saving the House that failed to deliver the Constitution by May 28 midnight.

After a marathon sitting,the Speaker put the proposal for vote and declared it passed with only four of the 508 members opposing it. Last year,the term of the House was extended by a year almost in the same fashion.

There was no immediate clarification on when Khanal would resign. I will resign immediately after an environment for formation of the national government is created, said Khanal. But the Nepali Congress said the understanding was he would resign immediately.

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