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    22-Feb-2017

MPs discuss gov’t response on infrastructure, mineral resources and prisoners in Israel

 

The Jordan Times

 

AMMAN — The Lower House held an oversight session on Tuesday in order to review the government’s responses to 18 questions from MPs.
 
Before the start of the session, Southern Badia Deputy Awad Zawaideh expressed his pride in the “good relations” between the government and MPs. 
 
“This is the way it should be. We will work together for the benefit of the Kingdom,” Zawaideh noted.
 
MPs took turns in stating their questions and answers to the government’s response, with several deputies voicing their criticism of the government’s response to economic challenges.
 
Ajloun Deputy Montaha Baaoul described the government’s response to her inquiries about infrastructure projects in Ajloun, some 70km northwest of Amman, as “misleading and filled with fake numbers”.
 
Balqa MP Mutaz Abu Rumman asked about the rationale behind the decision to cut JD55 million from the medical exemptions budget.
 
“The decrease in the medical exemption budget is an economic decision and not a medical one,” he said.
 
In response, Minister of Health Mahmoud Sheyyab stated that the decision was taken in order to regulate medical exemptions and direct services to those most in need.
 
“Medical exemptions will remain the same and with the same conditions, but they will be directed to the ministry’s hospitals,” Sheyyab added.
 
“Under the current circumstances, public hospitals have enough capacity,” he said.
 
MP Mahmoud Titi (Irbid, 1st District) changed his query about the status of the Jordanian prisoners in the Israeli prisons into a questioning after what he described as a “vague response” from the government.
 
Acting foreign minister and Minister of State for Media Affairs Mohammad Momani responded by inviting Titi to the ministry to view the efforts taken on the issue.
 
“According to our files, there are 15 Jordanian prisoners [in Israeli jails], 13 of whom are convicted in security cases and two are in detention for criminal cases. The ministry is following all cases closely and making sure they get fair trials,” ended Momani, who is also the government’s spokerperson .
 
MP Dima Tahboub (Amman, 3rd District) described the government’s response to her questions about the country’s mineral wealth as “weak and vague”, which she said indicated a “lack of seriousness” towards finding a “rational solution” to the economic crisis in the Kingdom.
 
“The mineral wealth in Jordan is great and estimated to be worth many billions, not to mention its great quality and ease of extraction; it is a better solution than hiking taxes and prices,” she said.
 
In response, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ibrahim Saif said: “We recently started classifying some areas in Jordan as open for exploration and we are also facilitating any investments in this sector.”
 
In their closing statements, many MPs expressed their support for the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army and security agencies, while some also described teachers as the “second army” and spoke of the nation’s duty to support teachers.
 
The session came to an end with Lower House Deputy Speaker Khamis Atiyeh expressing his frustration with the MPs’ “lack of commitment” to the session’s progress.
 

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