No Need for Constitutional Amendment, Current Constitution Can Last Another 50 Years: PM Shah
Dragon Media Correspondent
Prime Minister Balendra Shah (Balen), who is also a senior leader of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), has said that there is no immediate need to amend the Constitution.
During a political meeting held at Singha Durbar, Prime Minister Shah reportedly said that neither the government nor the RSP considers constitutional amendment necessary and that the process had been moved forward only because other political parties had long been raising the issue.
Quoting the prime minister, a leader who participated in the meeting said, “The government and the RSP do not need a constitutional amendment at all. The government has only moved the process forward because other parties have been raising the issue for a long time. There is no need to change this Constitution for another 50 years.”
The prime minister’s reported remarks have also raised questions about the relevance of the task force formed to work on constitutional amendment.
The participating leader said, “Perhaps parties including the UML withdrew their representatives from the task force because they realized that constitutional amendment was unlikely to happen. If the prime minister himself does not appear positive about amendment, the question arises as to what purpose this task force serves.”
The reported remarks come at a time when ruling and opposition parties have been expressing differing views on constitutional amendment, adding a new dimension to the ongoing political debate.
Although the government has said it would move forward with the amendment process, the claim that the prime minister himself sees no immediate need for changes has increased political interest in the government’s actual priorities, the role of the task force, and whether the amendment process will advance further.
No formal statement on Prime Minister Shah’s reported remarks has yet been issued by the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers or by the RSP.
