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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday passed the temporary Social Security draft Law, after over three weeks of heated deliberations over controversial articles, many of which affect the retirement and livelihood of hundreds of thousands of Jordanians.

The draft law will now be referred to the Senate, the upper house of Parliament, for deliberations and endorsement.

The Lower House had began deliberating on the draft law since the extra-ordinary session convened in February.

Lawmakers debated several articles in the law, and held heated debates particularly regarding the Social Security Corporation Investment Fund, which they blasted as "ineffective" and for having "squandered the investments."

The deliberations witnessed conflicting views over the expanding the rights of subscribers and pensioners, and on whether the labor minister should chair the Social Security Corporation (SSC), with some MPs calling for granting SSC full independence from the government.

The Lower House said during the session, chaired by House Speaker Saad Hayel Srour and attended by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour and Cabinet ministers that the House was keen to safeguard the assets of the Social Security Corporation (SSC) and pledged to support it to manage the investment funds and have a tighter control over its own funds.

Under the draft law passed on Tuesday, a new board will be formed that will be in charge of laying the general policy for the Social Security Investment Fund, draw up a general plan for investing the SSC funds and oversee the corporation's overall investment policy.

Endorsement of the law on Tuesday came as the cabinet took the decision to end the services of the head of the SSC Investment Fund, Henry Azzam, effective Wednesday July 31, 2013.

Meanwhile, several letters to the Editor were received by Ammon News from citizens calling on the Senate to endorse the law before the extra-ordinary session adjourns to recess until October, citing that the law affects millions of Jordanian citizens and ought to be given priority by lawmakers.