The House of Representatives issued Tuesday a decision to form 19 internal committee and the heads and deputy heads of those committees for temporary appointment since their elections will follow passing the code of conduct. The parliament said in a statement published online that the eldest MPs will be appointed as presidents of the committees while the youngest MPs will be appointed as their deputies. This was during the parliament's third session and the first following an earlier decision announced by recently appointed parliamentary speaker Ali Abdul Aal Monday raised controversy among MPs and the public. MPs were divided in half between accepting their sessions be banned from being broadcast on public TV and those against, bearing in mind the principle of transparency before the people and their right to watch. Abdul Aal declared taking the sessions "off the air", after two sessions were broadcast exclusively by state-owned TV. According to deputy parliamentary speaker Suleiman Wahdanha, the 40 MPs presented such the request to Abdul Aal to ban, who claimed a "majority of approvals" and enforced the ban, adding that he personally opposes the decision. "I expect that other MPs will request to revoke the decision but perhaps later on when things are stable inside the parliament. I would be one of those MPs," he told Al-Hayat TV channel Tuesday. Other MPs also expressed their discontent with the ban. Meanwhile, another internal debate that erupted was the resignation of MP Kamal Ahmed who expressed his opinion on how the first parliamentary sessions developed, describing the scene as a "circus". However, MPs rejected his resignation by majority and he was designated among heads of committees as the president of the Planning and Budget committee. On a different note, it was reported that former parliamentary speaker candidate Tawfik Okasha left the parliament after being denied the floor. The committees within the parliament are as follows: – Constitutional and legislative affairs – Planning and Budget – Economic – Foreign Relations – Arab Affairs – National Defence and Security – Suggestions and complaints – Manpower – Industry and Energy – Agriculture and Irrigation – Education and scientific research – Religious – Culture, media, tourism – Health and Environment – Transportation – Housing, development and facilties – Local administration – Youth – Human rights
