Jordan Times
Thursday, July 29, 2004
'Personal Status Law will be
endorsed eventually'
AMMAN (JT) — Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament Abdul Hadi Majali said he
expects the Parliament to eventually endorse a rejected law that allows women to
initiate divorce.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Jordan News Agency, Petra, on Tuesday,
Majali said that the Personal Status Law, better known as khuloe, “will be
endorsed eventually, especially since the deputies are convinced now that it
contains essential articles, although they want some changes to these
provisions.”
Majali said the legislation was voted down due to “personal stands” of the
deputies.
He noted that the laws rejected during the ordinary and extraordinary session of
the House constitute only a minority of the laws that were endorsed.
Majali confirmed reports that a new extraordinary session would be convened to
discuss the endorsement of a law that integrates investment promotion agencies.
Parliamentary sources were quoted in the local press as saying that a “brief”
extraordinary session lasting for two weeks is expected to open soon to debate
the law in question and other investment-related legislation.
MP Musa Wahsh (Amman 2nd District) told Al Rai this week that an agreement was
reached between the government and the House, under which the deputies would
reject these laws and give the government a chance to enact new ones.
Meanwhile, Majali rejected as baseless reports that MPs have demanded the
government include the allocations of the Socio-Economic Transformation Plan (SETP)
in the state budget.
He said the deputies understand that the development projects under the SETP are
financed by grants, and it is difficult to incorporate such funds into the
budget due to the nature of procedures taken to obtain grants.
These development projects should yield tangible results that can be felt by
citizens, he said, urging the government to intensify efforts to address the
problems of unemployment and poverty.
Commenting on a report by the Maan-based Al Hussein Ben Talal University
underlining the development-related problems faced by the governorate, Majali
said poverty and unemployment are not only found in Maan but also exist in other
governorates of the Kingdom, and efforts should be made at the national level.
Moreover, the speaker stressed the need for a national dialogue that involves
all sections of society and results in selecting a general secretariat. This
secretariat could represent people in the planned national conference, he
suggested.
On the parliamentary level, he said there are several blocs that constitute
power centres in the Lower House, noting that the Islamic Action Front
constitutes a major bloc that carries considerable weight. He said the National
Parliamentary Action Front is inclined to take a leftist approach, and named
other blocs like Watan, the National Front and the Democratic Front.
He revealed that suggestions are under consideration to set up a “parliamentary
stream” comprising over 60 deputies to include MPs who “believe in the incumbent
government's programmes and support it.” In return, the government should deal
with it in the same spirit.
He said the real criterion to evaluate the work of the Lower House lies in
legislation the deputies introduce and how much institutionalised monitoring
they exercise.
Furthermore, the speaker rejected allegations that the relationship between
deputies and senators was “unhealthy.” He noted that these accusations are built
on profound misunderstanding of the nature of such a relationship between the
two Houses. He added that cooperation between the two wings of the Parliament
has resulted in the endorsement of about 65 laws and while disagreement was only
witnessed over three laws.