The Pheu Thai Party will table a reconciliation bill for House deliberation after the charter amendment draft has been passed by parliament in the final reading, party list MP Korkaew Pikulthong said on Wednesday.
Mr Korkaew said details of the bill had not been finalised because party members still had differing opinions about the scope of the amnesty.
Some MPs were of the opinion the amnesty should cover all political offenders, starting from protests by the yellow-shirt People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) before the 2006 coup to protests by the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) in 2010 and afterwards.
Korkaew Pikulthong (Photo by Surapol Promsaka na Sakolnakorn)
Other MPs thought the amnesty should not cover protests and government leaders.
Therefore, the amnesty bill would not be filed until after the charter amendment had been passed by parliament, he said.
Mr Korkaew, a UDD core member, expected the reconciliation process to be completed before the next Songkran festival in 2013.
Asked whether the reconciliation bill to be proposed by Pheu Thai would clearly say former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra would not have to go to jail or face other pending legal cases, Mr Korkaew said he could not yet answer this question.
"The amnesty would be based on the principle of justice. Those subjected to an injustice would be given justice. Those sufferring from damage would be compensated, and wrongdoers would be pardoned," the list MP said.
Mr Korkaew said this did not mean that wrongdoers would be whitewashed. They would have to undergo a new legal process, under a judicial system which is acceptable internationally.
On Thaksin's remark that he would return home in three or four months, Mr Korkaew said he thought this was intended to make Thaksin's supporters feel good.
He said the voices of the people and the political situation must be taken into consideration.
PAD spokesman Panthep Puapongpan said the yellow-shirt group will call a major rally immediately if there is a move to legislate a law to grant amnesty to fugitive former prime minister Thaksin.
Mr Panthep said another condition which would prompt the yellow-shirt PAD to stage a rally was any legislative move which could lead to the reduction of His Majesty the King's power or structural changes of the monarchical system.
The PAD also planned to file a lawsuit with the Office of the Attorney General on April 26 against 416 MPs, senators and members of the cabinet on charges of attempting to abolish the constitution.
This would be done under Section 68 of the constitution, he said.
Also on April 26, the PAD would file a petition with the National Anti-Corruption Commission against the 416 under Section 275 of the constitution.