Joint Committees Approve Govt.’s Decisions on Electricity Draft Law
MP Robert Ghanem announced on Wednesday that an agreement was reached to adopt the government’s version of the electricity draft law.
He said after a meeting for the parliamentary joint committees that the law will be referred to parliament where it will be subject to a vote on Thursday.
“Prime Minister Najib Miqati addressed the law during the committees meeting and he explained all its details,” he added.
Furthermore, he revealed that Speaker Nabih Berri also addressed the committees.
At the end of the meeting, Berri telephoned Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun informing him of the “positive” atmosphere that pervaded the joint committees meeting.
Asked if he was pleased with the outcome of the meeting, Energy Minister Jebran Bassil replied: “I am satisfied every day.”
The third round of talks that kicked off at noon Wednesday was expected to witness a heated debate between the March 8 camp and the March 14-led opposition over the latter’s insistence to introduce several amendments to the bill to ensure greater transparency in the implementation of the electricity project and better spending as mentioned in the original draft law approved by the cabinet earlier this month.
Bassil’s $1.2 billion plan to generate 700 Megawatts of electricity is expected to be put to a vote during the meeting, a day before a parliamentary session to study and approve the draft law.
Head of the opposition al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc MP Fouad Saniora telephoned Miqati on Tuesday to inform him that the bloc insists on its demand to introduce the amendments to the bill and is not ready to reach any compromise.
A well-informed source told al-Mustaqbal newspaper that Miqati, Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and the Hizbullah leader’s aide Hussein Khalil had agreed before the cabinet session to approve the electricity project on Sept. 7 to include the amendments that the opposition is calling for but later drop them when the bill reaches parliament.
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