Valley
7 ministries finalise drafts on fundamental rights
Seven out of the eight ministries, which were supposed to finalise the draft laws on fundamental rights, have forwarded drafts to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (MoLJPA) on Monday. The documents will likely be tabled at the Cabinet for approval on Tuesday.Seven out of the eight ministries, which were supposed to finalise the draft laws on fundamental rights, have forwarded drafts to the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (MoLJPA) on Monday. The documents will likely be tabled at the Cabinet for approval on Tuesday.
Concerned by the delay in finalising the drafts, the Law Ministry on July 18 had directed the secretaries from the respective ministries to complete the drafting process so that they could be sent to the Cabinet’s approval.
The Cabinet approval is necessary before the drafts of the Acts on implementation of the fundamental rights are tabled in Parliament for endorsement. The constitution enshrines 31 fundamental rights in Articles 16 to 46, requiring 17 new Acts or amendments to the existing ones for their implementation. The ministries of Education, Health, Women and Children, Urban Development, Home Affairs, Environment, Federal Affairs and Commence and Industries are responsible for drawing up the drafts to uphold citizens’ fundamental rights. Spokesperson for the MoLJPA Ramesh Dhakal said that 16 drafts, except for the one from the Ministry of Education, have been sent to the Law Ministry for final approval.
“We are going through the drafts which will be dispatched to the respective ministries by Tuesday. They could be presented at the Cabinet the same day,” Dhakal told the Post. The Law Ministry has the primary responsibility in coordinating in the formulation of laws.
The Law Ministry had drawn up the preliminary drafts of 17 new Acts and amendments to the existing ones in line with the spirit of the new constitution and sent them to the concerned ministries two months ago. The constitution requires all the Acts related to 31 fundamental rights to be ready by September 19. But not even a single draft has been tabled in Parliament, prompting the MoLJPA to issue a week-long deadline to submit the drafts.
According to Dhakal, the Education Ministry has been directed to finalise the draft immediately so that it could be reviewed and tabled in the Cabinet within the deadline. While 17 Acts are needed to implement the provisions in the fundamental rights, additional five dozen Acts will have to be drawn up for the full-fledged implementation of the constitution. A constitutional deadline requires all these Acts to be in place within three years of the charter’s promulgation on September 20, 2015.