Amman, July 12 (Petra) -- The Lower House of Parliament on Sunday held its first session of the extraordinary parliamentary session, referring five draft laws to specialized committees for review, including legislation related to local administration, higher education, professional work and public services.

The session was chaired by Lower House Speaker Mazen Qadi and attended by Prime Minister Jaafar Hassan and members of the government.

The Lower House approved referring the 2026 Local Administration Law draft to the Parliamentary Administrative Committee following its initial reading, which included remarks from 90 lawmakers. It rejected a proposal to return the draft law to the committee.

The Lower House also referred four other draft laws to the relevant committees. These included the 2026 draft amendment to the Jordanian Universities Law, which was referred to the Education Committee; the 2026 draft law repealing the Civil Service Consumer Corporation Law, referred to the Economy and Investment Committee; the 2026 draft law regulating professional work, referred to the Labor and Social Development Committee; and the 2026 draft law establishing the Accreditation and Quality Assurance Authority, referred to the Education Committee.

The Local Administration Law draft aims to develop the local administration system by defining the powers and responsibilities of municipal councils and executive bodies, strengthening municipalities’ role in planning and development, and improving the quality of services provided to citizens.

The draft law also seeks to enhance governance and oversight, expand community participation, and transform municipalities from a traditional service-based role into a development and investment-oriented role linked to governorate priorities. It further aims to strengthen the role of governorate councils in development planning and monitoring project implementation.

The 2026 draft amendment to the Jordanian Universities Law aims to enhance higher education governance by reducing the number of members on boards of trustees of public and private universities, amending the mechanism for selecting presidents of public universities and expanding the scope of the law to include university and community colleges.

The draft law repealing the Civil Service Consumer Corporation Law is part of efforts to merge the Civil Corporation with the Military Corporation. It aims to unify work in the consumer goods and services sector and integrate administrative and logistical capabilities. The move is expected to improve supply, storage and distribution operations and enhance the provision of essential goods at reasonable prices.

The draft law regulating professional work aims to establish a legislative framework for the professional and technical labor market by regulating the practice of professions, licensing vocational training providers and accrediting programs and trainers, ensuring training outcomes are aligned with labor market requirements.

The draft law establishing the Accreditation and Quality Assurance Authority focuses on developing accreditation and quality assurance systems for education and training and unifying accreditation procedures across public, higher education, vocational and technical training institutions. It aims to improve the quality of educational outcomes and better align them with labor market needs.

The extraordinary session was convened pursuant to a Royal Decree summoning the National Assembly to convene beginning July 12, 2026, to consider draft laws related to legislative modernization and improving the performance of public institutions.

//Petra// AJ