Parliamentary committees' row to extend beyond the government formation, lawmaker says 

Shafaq News/ A member of Al-Fatah's parliamentary bloc on Wednesday said that profound disagreements over certain committees hinder passing the lineups of the parliamentary committees, hinting that deciding the committee rapporteurs will take place after the formation of the cabinet.

Lawmaker Siham al-Mousawi told Shafaq News Agency, "the political blocs have not settled upon a certain lineup so far. However, there is a deadline to be respected."

"Each committee must constitute 19 members. But this does not apply to all the committee; some of which might include up to 50 MPs," al-Mousawi said. 

"Currently, the contention revolves around the committee of security and defense, finance, law, and services. The number of the MPs nominated to these committees is far from reasonable."

"The rapporteurs of each committee and their deputies shall be named after the formation of the government," she said, "they will be selected from the parties that did not secure any spots in the cabinet formation."

Last week, a source revealed that certain parties' intransigence impedes the progress of the committees' formation. 

"The heads of some blocs are trying to force MPs into certain committees even though they are not relevant to the committees' field of work," the source elaborated, "the members of each committee shall be selected in a symmetrical pattern. For instance, the rapporteur of the Defense and Security Committee should not be from the same component the Defense Minister belongs to. The same applies to all the committees in the parliament."

"One of the other major issues impeding the passing of the committees' lineups is everybody's desire to be leading the class A committees, i.e., the sovereign committees. The criterion, however, is the electoral weight."

"The largest blocs justified claiming the most influential committees by their electoral weight," the source added.