Nepal, July 9 -- Four political parties - the Nepali Communist Party (NCP), the Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP), the Janata Samajbadi Party (JSP) and the Rastriya Janamorcha -- have withdrawn from the Constitutional Amendment Taskforce review, questioning the panel's jurisdiction and legitimacy.

They quit, accusing the panel led by the prime minister's adviser Asim Shah of attempting to rewrite the Constitution. Earlier, the UML attended two meetings and left. The Nepali Congress (NC) did not even participate, and its chair Gagan Thapa warned earlier this week that Nepal's hard-won freedoms were in jeopardy from "populist whims".

Constitutional amendments such as having a directly elected executive head of the country was one of the d...