Almost one month since the first CA meeting, parties are unable to table agenda for consideration. The CA tasks are limited to endorsing proposals for Advisory Committee formation and some other minor issues while no agenda for constitution-drafting has been presented in the Assembly.

Since January 22, the CA meetings are taking place only briefly. The next meeting of the CA is scheduled for Sunday but secretariat officials say there are no prominent agendas for discussion.

“We are consulting with political parties,” said CA Secretariat spokesman Mukunda Sharma.

One possible agenda is inducting some members to the committee formed to prepare the rules of procedure for the CA as well as parliament. The secretariat is preparing to put meetings on hold for a few days in the lack of business.

As the parties are busy with government formation, there has been no discussion among them to set the agenda. The major parties’ plan to table a proposal on taking ownership of the progress made by the first CA is pending owing to protests from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal. The RPP-Nepal is threatening a protest in the House if the agenda is presented for endorsement. The secretariat is pressing the parties without success to initiate the process to elect chairperson and vice-chairperson of the CA, officials said. The election process is stalled as the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML are locked in a dispute over which party leads Home Ministry. A 49-member cross-party committee was formed on Wednesday for drafting the rules of procedure. The committee has started its work but the going seems to be tough.

In the lack of business, it is impossible to draft the constitution within a year, said UCPN (Maoist) spokesman Dina Nath Sharma.