Worried by the political wrangling that is delaying the writing of the new constitution, the CA Secretariat this week unveiled its desired timetable that it hopes will focus the minds of assembly members and the government.

The secretariat hopes that the day 28 May 2010 will now be written in stone: the day the process is completed with the ratification of the new constitution.

The CA has so far only met as a parliament, and even that has been often disrupted by political protests, rostrum gheraos and festival breaks. It is supposed to meet for its first session as a constitution-drafting body next week when the timetable will be adopted.

The last hurdle for the meeting was cleared this week with the approval of the rules of procedure which had delayed its sitting. A disagreement over whether members should vote according to their conscience or follow the party whip had delayed approval. In the end, the committee entrusted with drafting the rules decided to drop the controversial clause altogether.

According to the new timetable, the chairmen of all 14 committees will be agreed upon by the end of the year. The committees will then start work on their own timetables to come up with a draft of clauses in their thematic areas and send a draft to the plenary by the Nepali new year on 13 April and after more debates present the first draft to the CA by 15 August 2009. Thereafter, public hearings will be held on the draft up to 15 December 2009.

The suggestions will be incorporated and debated in the chambers and, hopefully, the new document will be omulgated on 28 May.

CA members say the timetable is only a suggestion, and expect delays. Five months of the two years has already been frittered away on relatively minor political issues.