Seventh week of ordinary session marked by drop in House panel meetings — Rasid

AMMAN — The Civil Coalition for Monitoring Elections and the Performance of Elected Councils (Rasid) on Saturday said the seventh week of the 18th Lower House’s ordinary session witnessed a decrease in the number of committee meetings, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Seven House committees held eight meetings — four oversight sessions and four legislative ones, Rasid said, adding that the House in the sixth week held 13 meetings and in the fifth held 17 meetings. 

The Lower House held two sessions — a legislative meeting that saw the endorsement of the draft amendments to the National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) law and an oversight session that was closed to the media, the first of its kind for the 18th House, according to Rasid. 

During the closed session, the MPs were briefed by the government on the recent terror attacks that took place in Karak Governorate, which saw the death of 10 security personnel and civilians and the injury of 34 last Sunday and the death of four security personnel and injury of 12 on Tuesday. 

The House’s secretary did not reveal the names of the deputies who attended the closed session or the names of those who were absent whether with an excuse or not, while the names of the deputies who attended the public legislative meeting were announced, showing an increase in the number of absent MPs without an excuse, according to the coalition. 

There were six MPs absent with excuses and seven MPs absent without excuses, Rasid said.