After working for 10 months in difficult conditions, the House of Councilors has decided to dissolve a parliamentary committee set up to inquire into Jerada's closed mines. The body was expected to reveal the details of a 21-year-old agreement. A parliamentary committee set up to inquire about «the social and economic convention signed on February 17, 1998, after Jerada's Charbonnages du Maroc closed» was dissolved. The parliament's upper chamber decided on Tuesday, May 28, to turn the page on the inquiry and dismiss the body formally established on July 10, 2018, after the election of its president Touria Lahrach. The reason behind this decision was addressed, Tuesday, during a weekly session held at the parliament. The legislative body explained in a statement, read during said session, that the committee was dissolved after it was unable to submit a report on the matter on time. Indeed, the committee in question was expected to submit a report on its mission on May 21, one week ago. Its president had asked the House of Councilors to extend the deadline for the submission of the report, but her request was refused. Dissolved before managing to complete its mission The committee in question was established in difficult circumstances. Although it was joined, upon its creation, by 40 councilors, it was a hard to name a president for the committee. The choice, finally, fell on Lahrach while Istiqlal representative Adbeslam Lebbar was expected to head the committee at first. Justice and Development Party (PJD) MP Abdessamad Mariami was elected as the committee's rapporteur after he resigned in December, 2018, citing difficult working conditions. Meanwhile in Jerada, protesters took to the streets, urging El Othmani's government to honor the commitments featured in the agreement signed in 1998. Abdellatif El Filali who was heading the government at the time proposed to finance development projects in the city to make up for the closure of coal mines, the main industry in Jerada. Unable to increase production, Charbonnage du Maroc, assigned the extraction of coal in the city of Jerada, closed its doors in 1998, leaving behind hundreds of unemployed miners.
