MPs denounce Israel's arrest of Aziz Dweik
AMMAN -- The Lower House on Wednesday decided to form a committee to investigate allegations of corruption in agreements signed between the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) and several other firms.
During yesterday's session, an overwhelming majority of deputies voted in favour of a memorandum signed by 46 MPs requesting that the House Permanent Bureau form a nine-member committee to look into the agreements that ASEZA and the Aqaba Development Corporation signed with the Aqaba Container Terminal Pvt. Co., the Nafeth Logistic Services Company, and the Berenice Company.
Also yesterday, a majority of MPs voted for tasking the parliamentary committee examining corruption cases related to the Ministry of Public Works and Housing with looking into a memorandum signed by 21 deputies requesting the formation of a panel to investigate alleged corruption in the construction of houses for impoverished families across the Kingdom under a Royal initiative.
Signatories of the memorandum charged that money spent on these housing units was "much higher than the actual cost" and that supervisors and contractors of the projects have been making "fortunes" out of the project.
Moreover, the 65 deputies, who had previously submitted a memorandum to the House speaker's office requesting that all corruption cases investigated by the House be referred to the Anti-Corruption Commission, agreed yesterday to withdraw their request and keep these cases in the Chamber.
At the close of yesterday's session, the Chamber of Deputies issued a statement denouncing Israel's arrest of Aziz Dweik, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
In the statement, a copy of which was made available to The Jordan Times yesterday, the House noted that Dweik was elected by the Palestinian people and thus cannot be arrested, calling on the Israeli authorities to immediately release the Hamas legislator.
In arresting Dweik, Israel aims at "shaking" the reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Fateh, the House said, calling on all international parliamentary commissions and human rights organisations to bring to an end Israel's assaults against the Palestinians.
Dweik was detained by soldiers last week at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah on suspicion of being a member of a terrorist group.
© Jordan Times 2012
