Qabbani Meets Miqati: Cabinet-Approved Mechanism to Determine Civil Service Appointments
Premier Najib Miqati held talks on Tuesday with the head of the Civil Service Council, Khaled Qabbani, on the appointment of top civil servants, which had faced the obstacle of lack of political consensus among the major parties.
Qabbani stated after the meeting: “The mechanism that was approved by cabinet will determine the appointments of top civil servants.”
“This mechanism is recognized by all sides and the premier and president have voiced their support for it,” he remarked.
“The Civil Service Council is completely prepared to go ahead with the issue,” he stressed.
Miqati’s sources told As Safir daily that the PM will energize the government’s work this month to deal with several pending issues, mainly appointments to state positions.
They expected the appointments to begin mid-January in accordance with a mechanism that calls for appointing top civil servants such as governors and then moving to lower-ranking positions.
Al-Liwaa daily said that agreement has been reached on appointing Judge Antoine Daher to head the Higher Judicial Council after ruling out Judge Alice Shabtini and Tannous Meshleb.
The post had been a point of contention between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun. The newspaper did not clarify if both officials had agreed on the name of Daher.
But it stressed that the appointment will be published in the official gazette next week after its announcement on Tuesday.
If that step was made, the other members of the HJC will be appointed, paving way for the trial of suspects arrested in the clashes between the Fatah al-Islam terrorist network and the Lebanese army in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in 2007, al-Liwaa said.
However, former Minister Mario Aoun, who is close to the FPM leader, told Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) that “there has been no progress in the file of administrative appointments.”
He also denied that agreement has been reached on the name of the HJC’s president.
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