Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 7, 1999
Lower House rejects all but one recommendation by
Senate on draft amendments to the Companies Law
By Dima Hamdan
AMMAN — The Lower House of Parliament on Monday rejected all but one recommendation made by the Senate on draft amendments to the Companies Law.
Deputies who initially opposed the bill, argued that this move was unconstitutional.
The Senate took deputies by surprise when it rejected Article 168, which allows the minister of trade and industry to dissolve the board of any public shareholding company and appoint a committee to run the firm for two years.
The article also extended the minister's authorities to include limited liability companies.
According to recommendations by the House Economic and Finance Committee, deputies agreed only to exclude limited liability companies, but they insisted on the rest of the amendments.
According to a recent ruling by the prime ministry's Bureau for the Interpretation of Legislation, the Lower House can either accept or reject the Upper House's recommendations, but cannot introduce new amendments.
Both deputies Sa'ad Hayel Srour (Mafraq, North Bedouin) and Abdul Karim Dughmi (Mafraq) suggested that this issue be referred to the bureau for a ruling, but they failed to get the 41 votes needed to do so.
“The Senate has rejected the article in its entirety, [according to the bureau's ruling] we cannot accept some clauses and reject the rest, because this means that we would have to come up with a third suggestion,” said.
But committee chairman Ali Abul Ragheb (Amman, Third District) insisted the decision was constitutional on grounds that the committee did not introduce any new amendments.
“The Senate has dealt with each clause in this article individually, and gave separate reasons for rejecting each. In turn, we dealt with each one of their decisions on a separate basis.”
The bill will be returned to the Upper House for another review. If the Senate insists on its recommendations, both Houses will convene for a joint vote.
One lawmaker told the Jordan Times that some deputies want the entire bill rejected. Therefore, they deliberately voted against the Senate because they are certain that both Houses will not reach a unified agreement.