Report: Anti-Miqati Campaign Goes Beyond Electricity Crisis

A campaign launched by the Free Patriotic Movement and Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi against Premier Najib Miqati revolves not only around the electricity sector but also the appointment of civil servants to state institutions, ministerial sources said Monday.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat however that the procrastination in the appointments is to be blamed on the differences between President Michel Suleiman and FPM leader Michel Aoun.

Suleiman and Aoun have been at loggerheads on the appointment of the head of the Higher Judicial Council as each side continues to hold onto his own candidate.

But the sources stressed that Miqati and National Struggle Front leader Walid Jumblat, who has several ministers loyal to him in the cabinet, are backing Suleiman in his claim that he should call the shots in the appointment of the HJC head.

Some members of the government began threatening to withdraw from the cabinet to cover up the differences between them on the appointments, the sources told al-Hayat.

An Nahar daily reported Sunday that the cabinet is scheduled to make several appointments of civil servants to posts in state institutions next week.

It said the cabinet agenda includes three articles on the appointment of the chief of staff at the Civil Service Council, the director-general of the ministerial affairs at the general directorate of the premiership, the head of research at the Civil Service Council.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, who is also an FPM official, has been at loggerheads with Miqati on how to resolve the electricity crisis.

While Bassil has been pushing for the leasing of power-generating vessels, the premier stressed in a report that he would propose to the cabinet on Wednesday to build a power plant.