The Parliamentary Energy Committee session kicked off with a flurry of traded insults and accusations, and finished off in the same pattern.
Future and Free Patriotic Movement parliamentarians started bickering over the electricity file, and soon their shouts filled up the room without paying heed to the media cameras.
Once their voices subsided and the brawl was brought to an end, Change and Reform bloc lawmakers held a press conference, whereby they hoped to bring to the public attention, as MP Fadi Aawar put it, the fact that "there are contentious financial issues that must be clarified the people concerning the electricity file."
Aawar decried the actions of the head of the Energy Committee, MP Mohamad Qabbani, whom he accused of steering released statements according to his political impulses.
"The brawl was incited so as to obstruct the work of the committee," he said, arguing that Qabbani has no right to make an individual decisions to adjourn the session while he and others have not settled their overdue electricity bills.
The lawmaker lashed out at the loose theft accusations, questioning excuses for downplaying the accountability laws aimed at prosecuting ministers and parliamentarians suspected of graft.
MP Hekmat Diab called for the lift of confidentiality on the deliberations of the committee so as to uncover all existent offenses, whereas MP Nabil Nicolas confirmed that today's incident has, by no means, affected Tuesday's dialogue session.
Nicolas exposed his rival party's end game to be fear-generated. His argument paraded Future's anxieties over the unearthing and disclosure of potentially explosive documents.
In a presser, Future lawmakers accused their FPM counterparts of deliberately fueling the row once the media cameras stepped into the meeting.
Challenging accusations, MP Mohamad Qabbani, dared officials to produce alleged, unpaid electricity bills.
He explained that "released statements on behalf of the Energy Committee are minutes of their meetings," calling on Speaker Berri to open the committee's sessions to the public.
MP Ahmad Fatfat, in his turn, linked the lawmakers' row to an attempt to remove the head of the committee from office.
Another lawmaker, Kazem al-Kheir, held the court of Audit liable of rigged tenders related to Deir Ammar's power plant.
In defense of the committee, MP Jamal Jarrah said that the Energy committee's main purpose is to supervise the government's work, and monitor contracts, therefore querying as to "why would our actions be different if traces of corruption and waste of public funds were detected in the electricity file?"
Jarrah reminded that "Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil had submitted, during the last session, documents and dates related to the electricity file but Foreign Minister refused to send the designated contract to the court of Audit, a transgression which implies illicit deals."
At the conclusion of the presser, Jarrah called on the House Speaker Berri for transparency measures by lifting confidentiality off former reports by the committee.
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