Ammon News - AMMAN (Jordan Times) — The Lower House Legal Committee on Tuesday endorsed a set of amendments to the Chamber of Deputies’ Rules of Procedure to be discussed under the Dome next week.

Deputy Mustafa Yaghi, who heads the panel, said all MPs will be provided with copies of the amended paragraphs of the rules to get their feedback before including the discussion of the amendments on the House’s agenda for next week’s meetings, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The amendments are aimed at regulating the work of House blocs so that they can evolve into political parties and run for the next elections as a key element in the parliamentary government experience.

In previous remarks to The Jordan Times, Yaghi (Balqa, 4th District) said the panel has suggested that the House’s Permanent Office reject any request by an MP to change his or her bloc before the end of the ongoing session to give deputies who want to abandon their blocs enough time to rethink their decisions.

The Legal Committee also proposed an increase in the number of permanent committees by at least three, according to Yaghi, who added that one of these committees will handle the conduct of deputies.

Another committee was suggested for defence and security, and a third for the economy.

With these additions, the number of permanent Lower House panels will rise to 17, according to the deputy, who added that the number of seats on each committee will also increase from 11 to a maximum of 17 members.

In addition, the panel proposed the establishment of an “executive office” to administer the financial and administrative affairs of the Lower House.

Yaghi said the panel is also working on changes to the debating traditions under the Dome and introducing disciplinary procedures to curb, for instance, lawmakers’ absence from meetings.

Also on Tuesday, the Lower House’s labour and financial committees discussed appendixes to the temporary social security law, which they endorsed on Monday, Petra reported.

The committees’ recommendations on the law were aimed at increasing the “low” pensions of some retirees, allowing early retirees to combine their pensions with the wages they receive in any job and tying pensions with inflation rates.

Following the meeting, the head of the joint committee, Deputy Adnan Ajarmeh, said the appendicies are related to hazardous professions.

He added that the draft law and its appendicies will be included on the agenda for the House’s Wednesday session, according to Petra.

Meanwhile, the House Agriculture and Water Committee and the Education, Culture and Youth Committee continued their deliberations of the 2002 Agriculture Law and the 2010 temporary higher education law on Tuesday, Petra reported.