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Mohammad Reza Bahonar, the first deputy Majlis speaker, demanded that Majlis Public Relations and the spokesman for the Majlis presiding board issue a serious notice to the "national medium" (IRIB) [Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting] for its report about the Majlis' vacations. Bahonar, who was chairing yesterday's Majlis open session, said this matter in response to a legal notice stated by Sa'id Abutaleb, representative of Tehran. Abutaleb referred to article 23, section 11, of the Majlis internal constitution regarding the need to uphold the Majlis' esteem and said: "For a couple of days now the media have been speaking about the Majlis' vacations." This member of the fundamentalist [osulgara] faction added: "Today the radio was discussing this matter at 8:00 a.m. and the reporter concluded that the Majlis had 220 days off during the year." Abutaleb said: "Another time, one of our friends (MPs) had an interview in which he said the Majlis had too many days off." This representative of Tehran stated: "If we were to calculate workdays in this way and say that the Majlis is active only when there are open sessions, then should we also say that the administration is closed on the days when it doesn't have a session?" Abutaleb said: "When the Majlis doesn't hold open sessions, it doesn't mean that the entire legislative branch is closed. Some of the Majlis representatives have three to four offices in their electoral constituencies." He added: "Which representative do you know that is able to go home sooner than 11 or 12 at night?"
A representative of Tehran criticized a radio reporter's inaccurate piece of information about the Majlis. Sa'id Abutaleb, representative of Tehran, yesterday in a notice complained about the inaccurate news coverage of the Majlis proceedings by some media and called for the Majlis presiding board's explanation for public opinion. He alluded to the national radio's report of the Majlis session on Wednesday and said: "Today, I was on my way to the Majlis when I heard a reporter on the radio saying that the legislative branch had 220 days off during the year. I don't know on what basis the radio reporter had made his calculations that he came up with this number." Abutaleb said: "When the Majlis is not holding open sessions, it doesn't mean that the entire legislative branch is closed. Otherwise, if workdays were to be calculated in this way, we might as well say that the administration works only two days a week, because its sessions are held twice a week." Engineer Bahonar, who was chairing the session at the time, answered: "Those media that suggest that the Majlis has too many days off are being greatly unfair to the Majlis, because our Majlis is one of the most active parliaments in the world, and the function of Majlis is not merely confined to holding open sessions. Oversight and attending the affairs of voters are also among the duties of Majlis representatives."
[Following text is from Jomhuri-ye Eslami, 7/14/2005, p 7, on the 13 July Majlis session: "The Majlis Passed the Bill on Supporting the Establishment of Rural Industrialized Regions," followed by the Resalat column "On the Sidelines of the Majlis"]
Jomhuri-ye Eslami, 7/14/2005, p 7
The Majlis Passed the Bill on Supporting the Establishment of Rural Industrialized Regions
Jalali: Creating the Notion That the Representatives' Trip to Russia Was for Leisure Is an Attempt To Undermine the Majlis
Representative of Sari: Having a Wealthy Minority and a Deprived Majority Is the Result of Wrong Economic Programmes
Representative of Asadabad: The Existing Administrative System Cannot Actualize the Objectives of the Fourth Development Plan
Representative of Bandar Anzali: The Main Problem Is Improper Interpretations of the Nation's Vote
Bahonar: Give a Serious Notice to the IRIB
Majlis Legislation
Resalat, 7/14/2005, p 3
On the Sidelines of the Majlis
Protest Against Esfahan Medical University's Conduct
The Request of Three MPs
A Notice About the Chaotic Condition of Cement
Answer to a False Claim on the Baztab Site
Criticism of an Inaccurate Piece of Information
Ganji Even Made of Fool of Bush
Jomhuri-ye Eslami, 7/14/2005, p 7
The Majlis Passed the Bill on Supporting the Establishment of Rural Industrialized Regions
The Majlis ratified the urgency of an interpretation for the rural medical insurance law. In yesterday's open session, which was chaired by Mr Bahonar, the Majlis passed the bill on supporting the establishment of rural industrialized regions. In this session, the credentials of six mid-term representatives recently elected to Majlis were approved. Also the minister of guidance answered the question of the representative of Barkhar and Meymeh, and the minister of health answered the question of the representative of West Eslamabad in yesterday's session. The Majlis will not have any open sessions in the next two weeks because of the advent of summer vacations.
Jalali: Creating the Notion That the Representatives' Trip to Russia Was for Leisure Is an Attempt To Undermine the Majlis
Kazem Jalali, representative of Shahrud and the head of the Iran- Russia parliamentary friendship group, criticized some of the news sites and newspapers for creating the notion that the recent visit of the Iranian parliamentary delegation to Moscow was a "leisure trip." Jalali, yesterday in his pre-agenda speech in the Islamic Consultative Assembly's open session, viewed the publication of such pieces of news as an attempt in line with the process of undermining the Islamic Consultative Assembly. He said: "Unfortunately, this false piece of news and sheer lie was first dispatched on a news site affiliated with anti-revolutionary groups, and then without any inquiry about its accuracy, the item was repeated on another website that belongs to the revolution family. And finally, a week after this item was first published, a newspaper yesterday presented this piece of news to its readers under its first headline." He said: "Now that the Majlis representatives are able to display their effective role in pacifying the global political atmosphere, apparent and hidden hands are at work to prevent the Islamic Consultative Assembly from playing this effective role to help the government." The head of the Iran-Russia parliamentary friendship group asked the Majlis presiding board and the representatives to give serious thought to this issue.
Regarding the expenses of this trip, Jalali said that the expenses of this trip were paid by the host country. He went on to give an account of the Iranian parliamentary delegation's recent visit to Moscow and said: "During this visit that went on from 14 to 19 Tir [ 5 to 10 July], in addition to several meetings with institutions effective in Tehran-Moscow relations, the members of the friendship group also had 12 meetings with different Russian political and parliamentary officials." The Majlis representative of Shahrud said: "In these meetings, we discussed and exchanged views on different international and bilateral issues, as well as the latest regional developments." He mentioned the meetings with the Russian Duma speaker, the deputy Duma speaker, the director of the Russian Atomic Energy Organization, the Russian chairman of the joint economic committee of the two countries and the chairmen of the Russian Duma's committees on security, international affairs and defence affairs as some of the Iranian parliamentary delegation's meetings in the visit to Moscow. Jalali said: "This delegation also had a number of sessions for more than 12 hours with experts of different sectors and representatives of active Iranian institutions and organizations in Moscow. During these sessions, the experts presented a report on the latest developments and bilateral issues to the Iranian delegation."
He said: "During this visit, the members of the Iranian parliamentary delegation also had several interviews with Russian news media with regard to the extensive psychological warfare and negative propaganda of Western political circles and media, namely those of America, regarding Iran and the president-elect." Alluding to the Iranian delegation's visit to Russian historic centres, he said: "In trips of friendship groups, it is often customary to pay visits to the host country's historic sites and monuments, just as we arrange programmes for friendship groups with other countries in the cities of Shiraz and Esfahan."
Representative of Sari: Having a Wealthy Minority and a Deprived Majority Is the Result of Wrong Economic Programmes
The Majlis representative of Sari said: "Discrimination, oppressing the public, extortion, making the society bipolar, having a wealthy minority and a weak and deprived majority are all the result of wrong economic programmes in past years." Seyyed Hasan Shoja'i-Kiasari added: "Our government officials have provided invaluable services after the revolution. But there have also been many backbreaking failures that if we fail to set right, the Iranian nation will not be able to experience the pleasure of those services either." He said: "We see considerable failures in properly managing the society, balancing the incomes and expenditures and controlling the inflation."
Shoja'i wished success for the Iranian nation's president-elect and added: "The new administration shouldn't defend the failures like the previous ones, but should attend the people's true demands." The representative of Sari asserted: "Social justice is the bridge that only Islam and the government of virtue can build in the society. After 27 years of Islamic government, not only have we failed to establish social justice in its literal sense, we haven't even taken steps towards it." He said: "It is a shame for the Islamic government to have thousands of unbearable weaknesses in the country, and this is due to the lack of social justice in our society." Shoja'i-Kiasari added: "If we consider the painful lives of the people as the basis of our judgment, we will reach the conclusion that we have been negligent towards Islamic affairs, and the eminent leader and the people are dissatisfied with us in this respect."
Representative of Asadabad: The Existing Administrative System Cannot Actualize the Objectives of the Fourth Development Plan
The Majlis representative of Asadabad said: "The existing administrative system cannot actualize the objectives of the president-elect, the Fourth Development Plan and the document of the country's prospects for the next 20 years." Mohammad Baqer Bahrami added: "The administrative system requires brave structural reforms and immediate, accurate and scientific planning."
This Majlis representative thanked the current administration for submitting the bill for management of state services to the Majlis and said: "This bill contains important rules such as employment regulations for the country's organizations and the consistent payment system for employees." He also said: "After ten months, the government hasn't yet clarified its legal responsibility towards the consistent payment system for retirees."
Bahrami thanked the Expediency Council for considering the major policies of the country's administrative system and hoped that these policies would be approved before the start of the new administration's work. He said: "A number of the Majlis representatives have submitted the proposal of high-level state organizations to the Majlis presiding board." The representative of Asadabad asserted: "With the existing administrative structure, regulations, procedures and ministries, the president-elect will not achieve his goals, nor can the document of the country's prospects be accomplished."
He pointed to the second round of consultation for considering the Majlis internal constitution and asked the representatives to help the respective committee with their comments and suggestions, so that the internal constitution could be propounded in the open session a week after the summer vacations.
Representative of Bandar Anzali: The Main Problem Is Improper Interpretations of the Nation's Vote
The Majlis representative of Bandar Anzali said: "The people have no problem with the system and the Constitution, and the main problem is improper interpretations of the nation's vote." Hadi Haqshenas said: "Although the people's enthusiastic turnout in the election guarantees our national security and interests, political groups and parties each analyse and interpret the people's turnout in the election corresponding to their own political status." He stated: "If the atmosphere that today pervades different parts of the government had existed at the beginning of the Khatami administration when the public vote and participation rate was much higher, the reform government's accomplishments, which are nothing but the system's accomplishments, would have been much more."
This Majlis representative asserted: "The Iranian people want to protect their national and religious values, and they have determined the main direction of the government's programmes with their vote." He added: "If we had accepted the people's vote, as the late Imam Khomeyni described the nation's vote as the criterion, and if we had assisted and cooperated with the previous elected ones on that basis, today the foreigners' comments and analyses about the people's presence at the polls wouldn't have had such an important impact on our decision-making." Haqshenas said: "If the officials and the nation's representatives had paid due attention to the people's demands, and instead of trying to eliminate or damage each other and ignore the obvious achievements of the revolution they had spent their energy on providing solutions and cooperating to improve the social welfare, the country's political stability wouldn't have become so dependent on the people's vote and turnout at the ballot boxes every year."
Bahonar: Give a Serious Notice to the IRIB
Mohammad Reza Bahonar, the first deputy Majlis speaker, demanded that Majlis Public Relations and the spokesman for the Majlis presiding board issue a serious notice to the "national medium" (IRIB) [Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting] for its report about the Majlis' vacations. Bahonar, who was chairing yesterday's Majlis open session, said this matter in response to a legal notice stated by Sa'id Abutaleb, representative of Tehran. Abutaleb referred to article 23, section 11, of the Majlis internal constitution regarding the need to uphold the Majlis' esteem and said: "For a couple of days now the media have been speaking about the Majlis' vacations." This member of the fundamentalist [osulgara] faction added: "Today the radio was discussing this matter at 8:00 a.m. and the reporter concluded that the Majlis had 220 days off during the year." Abutaleb said: "Another time, one of our friends (MPs) had an interview in which he said the Majlis had too many days off." This representative of Tehran stated: "If we were to calculate workdays in this way and say that the Majlis is active only when there are open sessions, then should we also say that the administration is closed on the days when it doesn't have a session?" Abutaleb said: "When the Majlis doesn't hold open sessions, it doesn't mean that the entire legislative branch is closed. Some of the Majlis representatives have three to four offices in their electoral constituencies." He added: "Which representative do you know that is able to go home sooner than 11 or 12 at night?"
Bahonar also confirmed his notice and said: "This kind of calculation for the Majlis' working days is very unfair. In a comparison to other parliaments, we could say that the Islamic Consultative Assembly is one of the most active parliaments in the world, and we have no doubt about that." He added: "The Majlis is not a law-making factory. In order for the Majlis to pass and produce laws, it needs to do a lot of preliminary specialized work." Bahonar asserted: "Moreover, attending the affairs of voters is among the other duties of Majlis representatives."
Majlis Legislation
The Majlis representatives ratified the urgency of a draft bill for an interpretation about the medical insurance notebook of villagers. More than 90 Majlis representatives yesterday, by submitting an urgent draft bill, called for an interpretation about the medical insurance notebook of villagers. In the introduction of this draft bill, the misconceptions that had appeared during the first six months of the current year between the Ministries of Health, Treatment and Medical Education and of Welfare and Social Security regarding the free insurance coverage for people who have no insurance policy of any kind has been explained as the reason for proposing this draft bill. This draft bill, in the case of its final passage, will specify that the meaning of rural medical insurance notebook that has been considered for villagers in the country's total budget law for 1384 [ 2005-2006] is similar to the urban medical insurance notebook.
In yesterday's open session, the Majlis representatives also passed the report of the Industries and Mines Committee from its second round of consultation on the bill on supporting the establishment of rural industrialized regions. According to the single article of this bill, all rural industrial areas established by the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad from the date of the passage of this law will be subject to the law for establishing companies in Iran's industrial townships, passed on 12/7/1362 [ 2/26/1984], and its further amendments, as well as the other rules and regulations relating to industrial townships, and will also benefit from the concessions prescribed under these laws. Also, according to note 1 of this bill, governmental lands and those that belong to the Natural Resources Organization will be put at the disposal of minor companies of the Organization for Small Industries and Industrial Townships of Iran, as well as provincial companies, to establish rural industrial areas, free of charge. Also, according to note 2 of this bill, the Organization for Small Industries and Industrial Townships of Iran will be responsible to revise the platform of such minor provincial companies in such a way as to include the director of the provincial Department of Agricultural Jihad in each province as a member of the minor provincial company's board of directors.
The credentials of six MPs elected in the first mid-term elections of the seventh-term Majlis were approved in yesterday's open session, and these six MPs officially undertook their representative duties in the Majlis. Later in yesterday's open session, based on article 62 of the Majlis internal constitution, the reports of different branches regarding the credentials of the six representatives elected by the people in this year's 27 Khordad mid-term parliamentary elections were given. As the presiding chairman of yesterday's Majlis open session announced, since there had been no objections to the credentials of these individuals, their credentials were approved. On this basis, 'Alireza Mahjub as representative of Tehran, Ray, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr; Hojjatollah Ruhi as representative of Babolsar and Fereydun-kenar; 'Ali Morad Ja'fari as representative of Gachsaran; Karim Shafe'i as representative of Marand and Jolfa; Golmohammad Bameri as representative of Iranshahr and Sarbaz; and Seyyed 'Emad Hoseyni as representative of Qaraveh officially undertook their representative duties in the Majlis.
In yesterday's open session, the Majlis representatives also passed an interpretative bill for note 19, section Z, of the country's Second Development Plan law. This section, which was passed on 9/20/1373 [ 12/11/1994], specified that the price of providing telecommunications and postal services would be set and gradually increased during the years of the execution of this plan in such a way as to enable the investments anticipated to meet the country's needs for communication services to be provided from the internal financial sources of the post and telecommunications companies. In the bill that was passed yesterday, the government asked the Majlis for its interpretation of the expression "the price of service providing" and whether it also included obtaining the expenses for the maintenance of extraterritorial lines or not. The Majlis representatives, while ratifying the opinion of the Majlis Programme, Budget and Audit Committee, affirmed that the intention of "the price of service providing" in this law was the cost of those services of which the prices during the years of the Second Development Plan had been set with the Economic Council's approval.
In yesterday's session, the question of Seyyed Mahmud Hoseyni- Dowlatabadi, representative of Barkhar and Meymeh, to the minister of Islamic culture and guidance with regard to the vulgar and disorderly conduct exhibited in the process of holding the Mehr Festival in Shahin Shahr, Esfahan, was also propounded. But after the minister's explanations, the questioning representative announced that Ahmad Masjed-Jame'i's answer was not convincing, and so the question was referred to the Majlis Cultural Committee for further consideration.
The question of Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, representative of West Eslamabad, to the Minister of Health, Treatment and Medical Education regarding the poor management of the president of the Medical University of Kermanshah was also propounded in yesterday's Majlis session. But again the questioning representative wasn't convinced by the answer of Mas'ud Pezeshkian and this question, too, was referred to the Health and Treatment Committee for further consideration.
The Islamic Consultative Assembly will have no open sessions in the next two weeks in the first half of its summer vacations, and the next open session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly will be held Sunday morning, 9 Mordad [ 31 July].
Resalat, 7/14/2005, p 3
On the Sidelines of the Majlis
Protest Against Esfahan Medical University's Conduct
A group of pharmacology students staged a rally in front of the Majlis in protest against Esfahan Medical University's conduct. About 60 pharmacology students staged a rally in front of the Majlis in protest against the transfer of drugstores to unprofessional individuals. The protestors have refused to take their exams in order to have their demands met, and have announced that they will not attend their classes until the medical and pharmacological community is properly vindicated. Dr Pirmo'azzen, the reporter of the Health Committee, and Dr Heydarpur, another member of this committee, showed up among the protestors and asked them to reflect their demands to the committee in written form.
The Request of Three MPs
Three Majlis representatives called for prevention of hasty appointments and dismissals in the Ministry of Education. Fatemeh Alia and Laleh Eftekhari, representatives of Tehran, and 'Eshrat Shayeq, representative of Tabriz, yesterday in a notice requested the minister of education to stop the hasty and unreasonable appointments and dismissals of heads of Education Department offices in the final days of their activity.
A Notice About the Chaotic Condition of Cement
Three Majlis representatives issued a notice to ministers about the chaotic condition of cement. Asadollah Tabe' and Mohebbinia, representatives of Miando'ab and Takab, and Morteza Tamaddon, representative of Shahrekord, yesterday issued notices to the president, the minister of commerce and the minister of industries and mines, demanding that they expedite the process of preventing the trafficking of cement out of the country via frontier markets and solving the present crisis of cement, which has brought construction projects to a halt.
Answer to a False Claim on the Baztab Site
The representative of Shahrud responded to the publication of vindictive pieces of news on the Baztab website and in Mardom Salari daily regarding the representatives' leisure trips to Russia. Following the publication of a false claim on the Baztab website which was later published by the daily Mardom Salari, Kazem Jalali, representative of Shahrud and the head of the Iran-Russia parliamentary friendship group, yesterday responded to this claim in a speech. He said: "This was not a leisure trip, but we had 12 important meetings with Russian officials. Moreover, we exchanged views on important issues regarding Iran's nuclear case." Jalali said: "During this trip, the members of the Iranian delegation offered good explanations about the presidential election and the propaganda of Western media, which had a wide reflection in the Russian press." The representative of Shahrud pointed to Mardom Salari's excitement to exaggerate this trip and said: "This newspaper (Mardom Salari), which found out about this matter after a week, acted as if it had made a great discovery and presented this false piece of news to its readers as its first headline." Jalali strongly criticized Majlis Public Relations for its sluggishness in giving answers to public opinion.
Criticism of an Inaccurate Piece of Information
A representative of Tehran criticized a radio reporter's inaccurate piece of information about the Majlis. Sa'id Abutaleb, representative of Tehran, yesterday in a notice complained about the inaccurate news coverage of the Majlis proceedings by some media and called for the Majlis presiding board's explanation for public opinion. He alluded to the national radio's report of the Majlis session on Wednesday and said: "Today, I was on my way to the Majlis when I heard a reporter on the radio saying that the legislative branch had 220 days off during the year. I don't know on what basis the radio reporter had made his calculations that he came up with this number." Abutaleb said: "When the Majlis is not holding open sessions, it doesn't mean that the entire legislative branch is closed. Otherwise, if workdays were to be calculated in this way, we might as well say that the administration works only two days a week, because its sessions are held twice a week." Engineer Bahonar, who was chairing the session at the time, answered: "Those media that suggest that the Majlis has too many days off are being greatly unfair to the Majlis, because our Majlis is one of the most active parliaments in the world, and the function of Majlis is not merely confined to holding open sessions. Oversight and attending the affairs of voters are also among the duties of Majlis representatives."
Ganji Even Made of Fool of Bush
Akbar Ganji's partisans ought to be ashamed of themselves after seeing George Bush's statement. Hojjat ol-Eslam Shahrokhi, the Majlis representative of Poldokhtar, yesterday told our correspondent: "Exactly during the days when a group of ostensible advocates of legalizm were trying to exert pressure on the Judiciary to release a convict named Akbar Ganji from prison, the criminal President of America issued an insulting statement in support of Ganji, which made clear what kind of people Akbar Ganji was serving and working for, and what kind of people are concerned about him." Shahrokhi said: "Just as Ganji deceived and fooled his own partisans by stirring up the atmosphere with his false claim of being on a hunger strike, this statement shows he has managed to fool the American President too, because a spokesman for the White House has announced on behalf of George Bush that the recent reports regarding the severity of Mr Ganji's health condition have worried Bush and that he is very concerned about the Iranian government's behaviour in denying Ganji access to medical treatment." It is worth mentioning that concurrent with the desperate efforts by some of the anti-revolutionary elements and self-proclaimed advocates of reformism inside the country for Ganji's freedom, the spokesman for the White House yesterday in a statement announced: "Mr Ganji, please know that just as you rose up for freedom yourself, America will stand by your side!!"
Credit: Iran press review from BBC Monitoring in Persian 14 Jul 05
Iran press review from BBC Monitoring in Persian 14 Jul 05/BBCMonitoring/(c) BBC
