Ammon News -

The new Lower House's Permanent Office Saturday named a thirty-member committee that will write the reply to His Majesty King Abdullah's speech from the throne opening the 19th Jordanian parliament.

The legislature will send the reply within two weeks of the inaugural speech, which the King delivered on Thursday.

In its first meeting, which was chaired by House Speaker MP Abdul Muneim Odat, the Permanent Office set the parliament's priorities in the next stage.

Odat thanked the King for the inauguration of parliament's first extraordinary session "in these exceptional circumstances we are experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic."

He called for enhancing the legislature's performance to meet the aspirations of Jordanians, pledging to address "the imbalances" that offered a negative image about the legislative institution, and remain closely attached to citizens' issues and take their complaints and grievances into consideration.

The House chief also called on lawmakers under the dome and during the committees' meetings to adhere to distancing and other COVID-19 preventive measures.