Miqati Postpones Cabinet Session to Contain Dispute on Financial ‘Paralysis’

Prime Minister Najib Miqati postponed Thursday’s cabinet session at Baabda Palace to avoid a showdown between the bickering parties over the $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending of 2011, sources said.

The sources told An Nahar daily published Friday that Miqati’s decision came against the backdrop of disputes between Hizbullah, Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement on one side and the centrists on the other on how to legalize the spending.

The March 8 forces and mainly the FPM are stressing that the only solution lies in President Michel Suleiman’s approval of the draft-law in accordance with article 58 of the constitution which allows the head of state to issue a bill deemed urgent by the government after the failure of the legislature to approve it.

But Suleiman backed by the ministers loyal to Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, who is a centrist, is rejecting such a move.

The president claims that signing the decree would be unconstitutional because it includes violations that parliament’s finance and budget committee has expressed reservations over and instead is calling for sending the draft-law back to parliament for approval.

The parliament has previously failed to endorse it over another dispute between the March 8 majority and the March 14 opposition, which is conditioning its approval of the bill to the comprehensive settlement of the extra-budgetary spending made since 2005, the last time Lebanon had an official state budget.

“Had the session not been postponed, it would have turned into a campaign by Hizbullah, Amal and the FPM against the president,” the sources told An Nahar.

The three parties are holding Suleiman “responsible for the paralysis that hit the state, its ministries and its institutions over the inability to make any additional spending except for the (payment of ) public sector wages,” they said.

“Miqati held telephone conversations with the president and Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday night and they agreed to postpone Thursday’s session to avoid any showdown and pave way for negotiations,” the sources added.

While no date has been set for the next session, a March 8 minister said the cabinet will most likely convene next Wednesday.

“The last session showed the paralysis that has hit state institutions over the inability to make any funding,” the minister, who was not identified, told An Nahar.