Friday, May 6 2005 13:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kathmandu: Nepal's political parties fighting to restore full democracy in the Kingdom have drawn up a common minimum agenda, which includes revival of the Parliament and resolving the Maoist problem through dialogue.

"We have agreed on a common agenda to move ahead with our struggle for restoration of democracy and the draft agenda, which also includes revival of the House, will be published soon after the meeting of the seven party formally endorses it," Pradip Nepal, spokesman of the Nepal Communist Party-UML told sources.

The House of Representative has been absent since May 2002, when former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba recommended dissolving it after he had serious differences with the Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala, that led to a split in the largest democratic party.

Interestingly, Nepali Congress (Democratic), the split away party headed by Deuba, yesterday (May 5, 2005) endorsed the idea of backing the demand for revival of the House of Representatives, the concept Koirala has been advocating since the beginning.

"It is impossible to activate the 1990 constitution in the absence of Parliament," the party said in its statement.

The seven political parties including NC, NC (Democratic), CPN-UML, Nepal Sadbhavana Party (A), United Left Front, People's Front Nepal and Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, which held a series of meetings endorsed the idea of the revival of the Parliament to resolve the present crisis including the Maoist problem, Pradip Nepal said.