House to increase number of panels

"The House committees are likely to rise from 31 to meet with increased issues," special committee spokesman Niphit Intarasombat said Monday.

The special committee is tasked to draft the meeting procedures to pave way for the activation of the legislative work.It convened a first meeting Monday.

Democrat Niphit said the first meeting resolved to elect Prasong Bunpong and Paijit Srivorakan as chairman and secretary respectively. Prasong and Paijit are both from the People Power Party.

The meeting also agreed to summon two charter writers, Somkid Lertpaitoon and Atchaporn Charuchinda, to testify on February 12.

The two are expected to clarify the intentions behind the ban against MPs getting involved in government agencies and state enterprises.

Niphit said his special committee wanted to know whether MPs could still query or debate on the performance of government agencies and state enterprises.

The other grey area is the extent of the ban against MPs holding political offices, he said.

The special committee wanted a clarification whether the ban covered positions such as secretary to the minister and secretarygeneral to the prime minister, which were traditionally rewarded to MPs, he said.

People Power MP Chaowarin Latthasaksiri said he would propose to boost the number of House committees to 33.

There should be two new committees for Thais living overseas and for Buddhist affairs, he said.