KATHMANDU, Feb 8: In a regular parliamentary session, set to begin on Sunday, the 205-member House of Representatives will debate and later vote on whether to extend the state of emergency for a further period of three months — until the end of May.

Prime Minister Deuba’s cabinet seems to be holding the view that extending the emergency by another three months would give the army enough time to recover lost weapons and disarm most of the Maoist rebels, numbering about 15,000.

Once disarmed, the Maoist leadership would be compelled to resume the dialogue, eventually paving way for entering the mainstream democratic processes based on elections. After all, Maoists have already renounced their three main demands.

“One extension for three months is a reasonable proposition,” says Attorney General Badri Bahadur Karki, about the emergency. Karki is aware of the fact that most of the civil rights, including the press freedom, have been suspended during the period of emergency.

Democracy was restored to this Himalayan kingdom in early 1990 when the late King Birendra yielded to street protests and agreed to renounce absolute powers he had inherited from his father, Mahendra, in 1972.

The new constitution, drawn up in the later part of 1990, has provisions to place the country under emergency rules.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba got relevant articles of the constitution invoked, on November 26, through a formal Order issued by King Gyanendra.

The decree was meant to quell a Maoist insurgency which has plagued Nepal since the start of 1996. ( Of 2,300 lives lost so far, over five hundred people including members of the security forces were killed in the past two months alone.)

Opposition leaders have pointed out that government initiatives and actions had failed to improve the law and order situation across the country.