Salary scale to Parliament

Discussing draft law will take time

President Michel Sleiman has signed the salary scale draft law and referred it to Parliament for discussion. MP Nabil De Freij, Head of the Parliament’s Economy Committee, said: “Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri should now refer the draft to specialized committees which may include one or all of the Financing and Budget Committee, Administration and Justice Committee, and the Economy Committee.” The Parliament Speaker could refer the draft to joint committees or to each committee alone.

De Freij said: “We have to check whether or not we could ratify a law in the absence of the government that adopted it, especially since the Head of the Committee might summon one of the involved ministers to clarify some issues.”

The Cabinet had signed the salary scale draft one day before announcing its resignation. De Freij said: “We need to see whether the upcoming Cabinet agrees to discuss the draft law.”

Studying and discussing the draft law in Parliament will take a long time, despite the pressure practiced by the Syndical Coordination Committee (SCC), according to De Freij. He said: “The Parliament should take the viewpoint of the economic bodies into consideration and Parliament members should not cave in to threats.”

Hanna Gharib, President of the SCC, said: “We are one step ahead. We will reconsider the boycott we called for on correcting official exams.”