Berri Distributes Agenda for Upcoming Legislative Session
Speaker Nabih Berri distributed on Tuesday the agenda of an upcoming legislative session on the members of the parliament's bureau.
MP Marwan Hamadeh stated after meeting Berri at his Ain el-Tineh residence that the speaker took his decision out of the need for “urgent legislation.”
The members of the bureau will then hold discussions with political blocs ahead of holding a meeting for the parliament bureau during which a date for the legislative session would be scheduled.
Media reports speculated on Tuesday that today's bureau meeting would be marred by disputes among the representatives of the parliamentary blocs, mainly over the Lebanese Forces insistence to put the electoral draft-law on the agenda of the session.
According to An Nahar daily, LF MP Antoine Zahra will ask Berri and the members of the parliament's bureau to consider the electoral draft-law an urgent legislative matter given the absence of a president.
Zahra's move would hamper the speaker's efforts to hold a legislative session anytime soon, said the newspaper.
Berri had said that he would call for a session to approve urgent issues, including the wage scale for the public sector and the food safety draft-law.
Parliament convenes twice a year in two ordinary sessions -- the first starts mid-march until the end of May and the second from the middle of October through the end of December.
Meanwhile, intense contacts are being held to agree on the controversial salary raise, said al-Joumhouria newspaper.
After postponing several sessions on the controversial issue, the legislature in October returned the draft-law on the scale to the joint parliamentary committees for further discussions.
But no progress has been yet made in that regard.
G.K./M.T.
Y.R.
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