Sources: Transportation Allowance to Be Approved before Wednesday’s Parliament Session

Discussions over the transportation allowance may be postponed until after Wednesday’s parliamentary session should political powers fail to reach a solution for the dispute, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s sources told the daily however that they expect the transportation allowance bill to be signed before Wednesday.

Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas has refused to sign the government-approved bill, which he has deemed as illegal.

Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas stressed to An Nahar that the dispute “must be resolved before Wednesday’s legislative session.”

He added however that this solution must not include concessions by the prime minister.

“Such a concession would violate constitutional norms and mark a precedent that would weaken the institutions,” he explained.

It would mean that a minister has become more powerful than the premier and the state, said the economy minister, while accusing Nahhas of obstructing government’s functioning.

Sources monitoring the situation asserted that any solution to the crisis has to include the labor minister signing the transportation allowance, because failure to do so would mark a precedent where a minister did not commit to a cabinet decision.

An Nahar revealed that President Michel Suleiman received on Saturday a telephone call from Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss how cabinet sessions can be resumed.

Miqati decided to suspend sessions following an ongoing dispute with the Free Patriotic Movement over administrative appointments.

The daily said that Berri is seeking a solution that would not portray Labor Minister Nahhas as having been defeated.