The Parliament Secretariat has started preparing agendas for the first meeting of Constituent Assembly (CA) slated for January 22.

Though there has not been any agreement on the list of businesses yet, experts said, one prominent agenda of the meeting could be taking ownership of the progress made by the erstwhile CA, including a secular and federal democratic republic set up of the state.

All major parties except the Kamal Thapa-led Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal have agreed to take ownership of the dissolved CA. “The new CA should be informed about the works done by the previous elected body and lawmakers should be informed about the state of the constitution drafting process. Therefore, this could be one of the agendas of the first CA meeting,” said former Chairman of Constitutional Committee Nilambar Acharya. 

The Secretariat is approaching the major political parties elected in the CA to finalise political agendas of  the meeting. “We are holding consultations with all concerned stakeholders for the purpose,” said Mukunda Sharma, spokesperson for the Secretariat. In 2008, the first CA meeting took a historic decision to abolish the monarchy and establish a federal democratic republic. 

Another agenda could be formulating a committee to change or amend CA rules of procedure which have emerged as sticking points among the political parties. Many dread that could delay the constitution drafting process like in 2008. It took more than five months to finalise the CA rules of procedures at the time. 

“Formation of CA regulations draft committee could be one of the prominent agendas of the first CA meet because the earlier regulations would have to be amended,” said former legal advisor of CA Tek Prasad Dhungana. In 2008, such a committee was headed by Chairman of Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party Narayan Man Bijukchhe. 

The date for the election of chairman and vice-chairman of the CA could be another agenda of the first CA meet if the parties agree on this issue. 

The senior most lawmaker of the CA, Surya Bahadur Thapa, will read out the letter to the house stating that the chairman of the Interim Government called the meeting. Chairman Khil Raj Regmi will then address the house.