Jordan Times
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Action plan to address
poverty, creating job opportunities for youth
AMMAN (JT) — Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit on Saturday said addressing poverty
and creating job opportunities for the younger generation are top of the
government’s agenda.
“We will disclose an action plan to tackle those two issues,” Bakhit told
members of the Jordan Youth Parliament (JYP) preparatory committee yesterday.
“Despite the government’s struggle to reduce poverty, it is still increasing,
which led us to set in motion mechanisms to alleviate poverty,” Bakhit said,
adding the focus should be on providing shelter to families in need.
The premier said the government would expand a housing project proposed by His
Majesty’s King Abdullah by building an extra 1,400 housing units in addition to
600 other units, which have already been built.
“The plan is to build 5,000 units annually,” Bakhit added.
The premier urged young people to take advantage of available job opportunities
in the local market, stressing the role of youth in stimulating development, the
Jordan news Agency, Petra, reported.
In addition, Bakhit called on young Jordanians to join political parties,
pointing out that under the draft political parties law, the eligible age for
joining a party was reduced from 19 to 18.
Also on Saturday, Lower House Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali met with the committee
members, who are preparing a draft law on the Youth Parliament.
He rejected as baseless doubts cast by certain parties over the smuggled Hamas
arms caché and terrorist plots in Jordan, Petra, reported.
“We respect Hamas as a partisan political movement based on a religious
framework, but we do not allow it to work on Jordan’s soil. Everybody should
understand that this is one of Jordan’s constants,” Majali said.
Last week, a group of men appeared on Jordan TV and confessed that they were
ordered by Hamas leaders in Syria to attack several institutions in the country;
they also admitted on air to having hidden a caché of weapons in Jordan.
The suspects were among 20 other alleged Hamas members arrested for smuggling
arms from Syria into Jordan and plotting to carry out attacks.
Seized weapons included dozens of handgrenades, Iranian-made Katyusha rockets,
light anti-tank rocket launchers and machineguns.
The Hamas-led government refused to take part in a visit to Amman by a
Palestinian security and political delegation who were briefed on the details of
the case before the confessions were aired.
Investigations revealed attempts to bring recruits from the Palestinian
territories and send them to Syria and Iran to receive “military, security and
intelligence” training.
In his meeting with JYP members, Majali attributed the failure of political
parties to the current Political Parties Law, “which allows as few as 50 persons
to establish a party.”
In addition, citizens do not feel that the state is serious about political
development, the speaker said.
But Majali said there is political will for the development of political life in
Jordan on the basis of pluralism, democracy and sound partisan work.
The meeting, attended by Minister of Political Development and Parliamentary
Affairs Sabri Rbeihat, is part of series of meetings the preparatory committee
is organising in preparation for a July meeting, which is expected to come up
with a draft law to govern the work of the JYP.
The committee consists of 60 young selected from several youth organisations and
trade unions to represent some 1.1 million Jordanians between the ages of 18 and
27.