Lower House wraps up formation of permanent committees

AMMAN — The Lower House on Wednesday completed the selection of heads and members of its permanent committees following four sessions dedicated solely for this purpose.

The House started the formation of its permanent committees last Wednesday, with the process continuing on Sunday and Tuesday.

Members of 17 out of 20 committees were elected by acclamation, while those of the legal, tourism and external affairs committees were elected through secret ballot.

MPs Bassam Manasir and Reem Abu Dalbouh garnered the highest number of votes in the secret ballot conducted for the 11-member legal and external affairs committees. 

Under the new amendments to the 150-seat Lower House’s by-laws, the number of permanent committees was raised from 14 to 20, with new panels being created or existing ones split. 

During their deliberations of the chamber’s Rules of Procedure, deputies decided to split the Financial and Economic Committee into a financial panel and another concerned with the economy and investments.

MPs also agreed to establish three new committees to address order, transparency and women’s issues, while they rejected a proposal to form a panel to tackle defence and security issues.

They also changed the name of the Labour and Social Development Committee into the Labour, Social Development and Population Committee.

In addition, deputies included media under the portfolio of the National Guidance Committee, rejecting a recommendation by the Legal Committee to add it to the Education and Culture Committee.

Parliament convened for its second ordinary session on November 2, with deputies re-electing MP Atef Tarawneh as the Lower House speaker for another one-year term the same day. 

The Upper and Lower Houses presented their replies to His Majesty King Abdullah’s Speech from the Throne on Sunday, stressing lawmakers’ willingness to cooperate with other stakeholders to achieve national goals.