Parliament Witnesses Gemayel-Qansou Spat, Berri Stresses Need to Pass Wage Scale
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
The parliament on Thursday wrapped up a plenary legislative session that spanned three days, after approving several key bills and postponing a host of draft laws, amid a heated exchange between MPs Sami Gemayel and Assem Qansou.
The legislature also decided to refer to parliamentary committees a number of urgent bills after determining that they need further debate.
At the end of the session, Speaker Nabih Berri announced that a new legislative session will be held on Wednesday and Thursday next week, following a cabinet session that will be held on Tuesday.
The speaker hoped the new legislative session will be dedicated to the new wage scale, whose decrees are expected to be finalized this Friday by the joint parliamentary committees.
Berri underlined the need to finalize the salary scale and give it priority, noting that the parliament would then start discussing the submitted draft laws on the parliamentary electoral law.
The Syndicate Coordination Committee, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees, staged a central, massive sit-in on Wednesday to press for the approval of the wage scale, which was passed by Najib Miqati's government more than a year ago.
The government, however, had failed to agree on the sources of funding back then.
Meanwhile, an urgent draft law for the parliamentary elections that is based on proportional representation failed to gain the approval of the legislature.
Separately, Thursday's legislative session was marred by a verbal dispute between MPs Gemayel and Qansou over a draft law on paying compensations to the army officers who were laid off following the October 13, 1990 ouster of then army chief Michel Aoun at the hands of Syrian forces.
Qansou stressed that the law must not be only limited to the October 13 officers, but Gemayel fiercely defended the proposal, saying “these officers were incapable of defending themselves because Lebanon was under Syrian occupation.”
But Qansou hit back, noting that “continuing to describe the Syrian Arab Army during that era as an occupation army is rejected.”
“Those speaking now were in power back then, topped by the Kataeb party, and they must not use words that are bigger than them,” Qansou added.
Gemayel replied saying “we were taking part from Paris,” but the Baath Party representative stressed that “they were in the government.”
The dispute prompted Berri to demand dropping the “occupation army” phrase from the session's minutes amid Gemayel's objection.
The spat did not end with the speaker's intervention due to the interference of several lawmakers, including head of al-Mustaqbal bloc ex-PM Fouad Saniora.
Berri then referred the draft law to the joint parliamentary committees for further scrutiny, saying “the issue will be finalized within a month at the latest, because the priority of the committees is to finish the draft law of the new wage scale.”
Y.R.
S.D.B.
03 April 2014, 17:48
07
Mr. Berri, they caught a croc today, surely the dinausors' time should be near too.
03 April 2014, 19:45
01
roar.
"3acheerit zi3ran" means a clan of thugs in lebanese.
A few lebanese guttural sounds that dont have latin letters are written with 8 and 3 and 7.
:) welcome to lebanon.
03 April 2014, 19:49
02
I guess people use lebanese sometimes because some expressions are much more expressive and colorful in lebanese.
03 April 2014, 19:59
01
not at all. 3 is like 3ar (shame). go to google translate, write "shame" in english, then get the spoken translation. this is the 3.
04 April 2014, 00:02
13
Syrian Occupation ... An era which Aoun and Hezbollah want to revive !
Nostalgie ... those were the days when lebanon was "safe" from terrorism, when politicians and mafias made billions, not millions, when drug and weapons trafficking was at an all time high.
Not only was it a Syrian Occupation, it was a Syrian Dictatorship ! With all leaders at least complicit of crimes against humanity, mass torture and mass murder. An era for which Hariri and others were murdered for wanting to end it !
We kicked out Syria without a single bullet shot. We will do the same to Hezbollah soon !
04 April 2014, 03:03
02
FD.
And Israel is also forcing Saad Hariri to stay away for fear of assassination tight? THe son Saad knows who killed his father and who is threatening his own life too.
04 April 2014, 12:12
01
@FD : As much as I would have loved it to be the case, it's not. All the evidence points to Hezbollah and Assad who have MOTIVE and the MEANS to conduct such an operation.
Hariri turned against Bashar and Hezbollah's weapons and this is why they killed him. SIMPLE !
HA and Syria aren't idiots... you're right... their followers are though and that's the problem !
04 April 2014, 01:48
01
This country has no accountability. The government has sovereignty over just 2/3 of its land, militias freely roam around like it's the Wild West, and the president has to beg the public to support the army. It's truly pathetic. All the leaders are relics from the civil war and have put this country in permanent paralysis. Politicians are being assassinated and the culprits are being hidden underground while the trials continue in absentia.
04 April 2014, 01:50
01
We have a militia fighting in another country, first they claim they are only protecting their people living on the border towns, then it was because they are "fighting a war against humanity" when in fact they're allies with the guy who committed atrocities and used chemical weapons. Then their participation in the war became "an extension of the war with Israel, the enemy wears a new cloth." What is this a game? Wearing cloths? Colonel Mustard with the candlestick in the library? Spare me. Meanwhile our corrupt politicians are publicly planning a raid in Tripoli to restore peace, and the militia leaders from Jabal Zbeileh flee to Syria because they were warned ahead of time. There's no accountability, there's no civility, there's no justice in this country.
04 April 2014, 02:02
10
M11er
I am not sure how the blame game can be stopped. Ever noticed that about 90% comments here include blames on M8 or M14 or Takfiris or HA.etc,,,
In fact it has reached the sublime ridicule that any event in Lebanon is blindly blamed on a party or someone etc even though that the event in question is not politically related. It is almost hysteria..lol
04 April 2014, 10:13
10
Can you perhaps make just one post without emblazoning your fake hakim? Get yourself straightened up buddy, the guy's a criminal of the highest order who terrorized lebanese left and right. The 10k martyr were NOT from the lf of today but rather the kataeb. Have some dignity and stop your blatant nonsense.
