Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh Tuesday called on parliamentary blocs to speedily register with the legislature's Secretariat as lawmakers sat for a third day in a row to debate the government's policy statement.

According to the House's bylaws, a special regulation governing the work of blocs has to be in place within thirty days of Parliament's ordinary session.

In a session, attended by Prime Minister Hani Mulqi and cabinet ministers, MP after MP took the floor to air the demands and grievances of their constituencies, with a focus on better services and job-creation, while calling on the government not to raise prices and taxes.

One lawmaker called for raising teachers' salaries and supporting public universities, which suffer from financial difficulties, while others demanded an upgrade of the health sector to ensure that their areas have fair shares of service, and also stressed doctor training before joining healthcare centres.

One MP complained that tourism, a mainstay of the state budget, has been in limbo for years, adding that the policy statement had "ignored tourism as if it was a marginal sector", and also said he would vote confidence for a government whose budgetary policy is based on demographic, rather than geographic considerations.

Another MP warned of a "real" economic crisis, urging the government to remove economic imbalances and "not to leave the citizen to face his fate alone", questioning the feasibility of International Monetary Fund's recipes to achieve recovery, reduce deficit and increase investment.

MPs also called for abolishing "the gas agreement" and said they opposed any form of cooperation with Israel, while others warned against "tampering" with school curricula and called for a heavy-handed approach against the drug trade.

One lawmaker called the policy statement "nothing new", urging "tangible" governmental measures to ensure its presence in the field, and also to apply fairness in employment.