MPs Exerting Efforts to Resolve Transportation Crisis

Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Nabil de Freij has sought to find a way out for the cabinet dispute over the controversial transportation and education allowances by proposing an urgent draft law to be discussed by the parliament next Wednesday.

According to al-Liwaa newspaper published on Friday, de Freij’s proposal to set the amount of the transportation and education allowances might force the cabinet to endorse the draft law, ending the three-week crisis.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s sources told the daily that the only way to resolve the dispute would be by adding Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ signature to a cabinet decision to set the allowances in January.

“We refuse to accept (Nahhas’) move and we will find a way out, but it’s not that simple,” the sources said about the minister’s refusal to sign the decree approved by the cabinet for allegedly being “illegal.”

Nahhas was tasked by the government to prepare a draft law and refer it to the parliament for adoption, allowing the government to set the minimum rates for the allowances and “legalizing” them.

An Nahar newspaper reported that de Freij’s proposal would resolve the employees’ problem; however, Miqati’s sources told the daily that “it would deepen the cabinet’s crisis.”

The parliamentary Finance Committee sources told As Safir newspaper that the committee is also studying a draft law proposal made by MP Ibrahim Kanaan from the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc, led by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun.

The proposal “guarantees a legal solution to the transportation dispute,” the sources noted, saying Kanaan would suggest for MPs to discuss the draft law during Wednesday’s session.

A source in the Parliament's Bureau Committee said that the legislature would merge the two draft laws, proposed by de Freij and the head of the Finance Committee Ibrahim Kanaan, if the two submitted their urgent draft laws.

The Labor Minister stressed that the transportation allowance crisis was created to deprive the employees from 20-30 percent of end of service compensations.

Nahhas challenged the cabinet to withdraw confidence from him, saying: “The matter requires having the votes of 20 ministers. Do they think this number exists?”

He denied reports saying that the cabinet will collapse eventually, for it is the element “that is keeping the country stable.”

Miqati had decided on February 1 to suspend the cabinet sessions after he bickered with the ministers of Aoun’s Change and Reform bloc over his decision to appoint top civil servants in state posts reserved for Christians without consulting them.

The two sides have exchanged accusations of violating the constitution and preventing the cabinet of carrying out its tasks, driving Miqati to call on ministers who don’t want to abide by the cabinet’s decision to resign. But Aoun slammed the premier, saying he should quit.