The National Assembly has acquitted itself admirably by passing a number of bills crucial to the public interest and will continue to do so with confidence, said Speaker of the National Assembly Marzouq Al-Ghanim, addressing the lawmakers in the final session for the current legislative term on Thursday.
To back up his pronouncement, he listed a bevy of these bills and other legislative achievements, emphasizing that numbers "do not lie." For instance he said the Assembly passed a total of 31 bills, a feat unmatched by all the past legislative terms since 1963. This achievement has been accomplished during the current session which began eight months ago and ended earlier today.
Moreover he said the Assembly passed in those eight months 22 draft bills for agreements and 98 others dealing with ministries' budgets.
Whereas the government during the eight month legislative session fielded 62 draft laws, the lawmakers, by contrast, presented 520 draft law proposals, said Al-Ghanim.
He noted with pride that the enormous work done by the various committees, of which there are ten permanent ones and 14 ad hoc ones, resulted in 399 meetings with a total amount of hours of work topping 786.
Such dedication, he said, was behind the passing of such seminal laws, long waited for by the public, as the ones regarding the Constitutional Court, health insurance, awarding of severance pay, creating a transportation authority, and organizing e-business, among other ones.
He said a case of stellar cooperation between the legislative and executive branches was the issue of housing, where the two sides agreed to increase the number of disbursable houses to the public from 3000 to 12,000 annually.
He thanked his colleagues, the media, and members of the cabinet for a job well done in those past eight months, asking at the same time for more collaboration when the next legislative session convenes next October 29.