The Nepali Congress (NC) is to submit soon a document to King Gyanendra citing ground for the restoration of the House of Representatives (HOR) as the best way out of the current political impasse. The document, prepared by party’s constitutional experts, cites over a dozen reasons as to why the restoration of the dissolved Lower House still remains the best choice for the monarch. It argues, among others, that the prime ministerial prerogative to announce election was conditional and failure to hold the same should mean restoration of the House of Representatives under Article 53(4). A party source anonymously claimed that the document would also be circulated to the diplomatic missions in Kathmandu after it is endorsed by the party’s upcoming Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting scheduled for March 20. Following the endorsement, the document would also make to the party’s website as its official document. NC’s fresh effort for House reinstatement has come in the backdrop of the last week’s agreement with the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist & Leninist (CPN-UML) which had offered the monarch with two options: either reinstate the House of Representative or form an all party government. The eventual purpose being to restore the “derailed political process”. The source, however, claimed that NC had renewed its attempt for the House revival before the NC and UML – including the other two small left parties – agreed to ask the constitutional monarch to either to reinstate the House or to form an all-party government last week. The source also revealed that NC President Girija Prasad Koirala had held a two hour long secret meeting with Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand on March 8 during which the latter had asked Koirala to come up argument presenting a perfect case for the House reinstatement. Chand had rejected the idea of forming an all-party government, source claimed. Following the meeting between Prime Minister Chand and Koirala, a meeting of heads of constitutional bodies, too, was held. “The meeting had reviewed the political scenario in the backdrop of Maoists joining the mainstream and concluded that reinstatement would be the best alternative since it would pave way for parliament dealing with the rebel outfit,” said the source. This was followed by royal audience, which has seen Koirala referring to the peace process in a positive way. Govind Raj Joshi, NC Joint General Secretary, on Monday conceded that the only thing that could happen any time was the reinstatement of the Lower House. “We are confident about it since this is best way to bring about the constitutional changes sought by the Maoists.” Meanwhile, public remarks coming from Prime Minister Chand that there was no basis for either all party government or restoration is to ensure political correctness since advocating restoration of the HOR could undermine the position of the CPN-UML in the general public. [if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4