Lower House endorses reply to Speech from Throne

AMMAN  — The Lower House on Sunday endorsed its reply to His Majesty King Abdullah’s Speech from the Throne, which he delivered at the opening of the 18th Parliament’s second ordinary session on November 12.

Under the Constitution, the two Houses of Parliament must submit their replies to the King’s Speech from the Throne within 14 days.

An ad hoc committee comprising 21 lawmakers was recently formed to draft the reply. Deputies on Tuesday elected MP Fawzi Tuaimeh as head of the committee to reply to the Speech from the Throne.

The Senate is expected to meet on Tuesday to finalise its reply to the King’s Speech from the Throne amid speculations that the two Chambers’ replies will be presented before His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday. 

Also on Sunday, the Lower House formed five of its 20 permanent committees during a session that was chaired by its Speaker Atef Tarawneh.

The House usually forms its committees at the start of each ordinary session, but if no consensus is reached, members of the committees will be selected through a secret balloting.

Each permanent committee has to have a minimum of five deputies and a maximum of 11 and no MP is allowed to be a member of more than two committees. 

During the session, deputies named members of the House’s legal, finance, economic and investment; and education and cultural committees, while they elected members of the foreign affairs committee, the Jordan News Agency, Petra,  reported.