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Jordan The Council of Ministers
The cabinet, consisting of the prime minister and the other
ministers, is the top executive arm of the state. Its members serve
at the pleasure of the king, but the Constitution requires every
new cabinet to present its statement of programs and policies to
the House of Representatives for approval by a two-thirds vote of
the members of that house. If the house passes a vote of no
confidence, the cabinet must resign.
Traditionally, prime ministers have been recruited from
families that have loyally served the Hashimites for many years.
Zaid ar Rifai, who was prime minister from 1985 to 1989, is the son
of a prominent Transjordanian politician who had served as prime
minister to Hussein's grandfather. His successors, Ash Sharif Zaid
ibn Shakir (April-November 1989) and Mudar Badran (designated prime
minister in November 1989) have each worked with the king in a
variety of political capacities. Significantly, both men served as
chief minister of the royal court prior to becoming prime minister.
In September 1989, the cabinet included ministers responsible
for the following portfolios: agriculture; communications; culture
and information; defense; education; energy and mineral resources;
finance and customs; foreign affairs; health; higher education;
tourism and antiquities; interior; justice; labor and social
development; municipal, rural, and environmental affairs; planning;
religious affairs and holy places; supply; trade and industry;
transportation; and youth. In 1989 the government also was served
by a minister of state for prime ministerial affairs.
In 1986 the bureaucracy employed 109,523 Jordanians, making the
government the principal employer in society. Selection generally
was based upon merit, although patronage and nepotism remained
fairly widespread. The government trained civil servants at a
school of public administration in Amman, Jordan's capital. A
majority of them were Palestinians who had opted for Jordanian
citizenship; at the higher levels of the administrative hierarchy,
however, Transjordanians probably outnumbered Palestinians.
Allegiance to the monarchy and the Constitution remained an
important factor in government service. In the aftermath of the Az
Zarka affair in 1957 and the civil war of 1970 and 1971, numerous
Palestinian civil servants were dismissed because of suspected
disloyalty to the throne.
From the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank
in June 1967 until Hussein relinquished Jordan's claim to
sovereignty of the territory in July 1988, Amman continued to pay
salaries and pensions to serving and retired West Bank municipal
government employees. During this period, the West Bank came under
the jurisdiction initially of the Bureau of Occupied Homeland
Affairs, attached to the prime minister's office and headed by a
cabinet-level minister; later this office became the Ministry of
Occupied Territories. In addition to paying salaries, it was
responsible for channeling Jordan's loans and development funds to
Palestinian concerns in the West Bank. Following the decision at
the Baghdad Summit meeting in November 1978 to set up a special
fund for development and other projects in the Israeli-occupied
territories, this ministry worked jointly with the PLO in
administering aid funds for Palestinians in both the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip. By 1988, when Jordan terminated payments, more than
20,000 West Bank Palestinians were estimated to be receiving
salaries from the Jordanian government. All of these employees were
granted retirement benefits or severance pay according to the
number of years they had been municipal employees.
Data as of December 1989
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