BEIRUT: Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas is expected to sign the transportation allowance decree before Wednesday’s crucial Parliament session in a move that would get the stalled Cabinet back in business, a senior political source said late Monday.

“Things are optimistic again. We expect Minister Nahhas to sign the decree in the coming few hours,” the source told The Daily Star late Monday.

The source spoke a few hours after ministerial sources said Prime Minister Najib Mikati would withdraw two draft laws from Parliament that would authorize the Cabinet to act on the transportation allowance decree if Nahhas failed to sign it.

“Mikati is insisting that Nahhas sign the transportation decree before the Parliament meeting. If he fails to do so, the prime minister will withdraw the two draft laws pertaining to the transportation allowance bill,” a ministerial source told The Daily Star.

“Mikati will not accept that Parliament approves the decree before it has been signed by the labor minister at the Cabinet’s request,” the source said.

Parliament is expected to vote Wednesday on two draft laws, one prepared by Free Patriotic Movement MP Ibrahim Kanaan and another by Future bloc MP Nabil de Freij, which would authorize the Cabinet to set transportation and education allowances. Media reports said the two draft laws would be combined into one proposal to allow MPs from the March 8 and March 14 camps to ratify it during Wednesday’s legislative session, a move which would pave the way for a resumption of Cabinet meetings.

Mikati’s move to withdraw the two draft laws from Parliament would mean a prolongation of the Cabinet crisis, now entering its fourth week.

The Cabinet crisis was discussed Monday night during a dinner hosted for Mikati by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt at the latter’s residence in Clemenceau.

A source close to Mikati said unless Nahhas puts pen to paper on the transportation allowance decree, there will be no resumption of Cabinet sessions, stalled since Feb. 1. “The signing of the transportation allowance decree is the key to resuming the Cabinet meetings,” the source told The Daily Star.

Earlier Monday, Mikati discussed the crisis during a meeting with President Michel Sleiman at the Baabda Palace. Sleiman and Mikati reviewed “the current developments and reviving the Cabinet work, in addition to a number of issues under discussion,” the state-run National News Agency reported.

A political source said Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri was making contacts with the parties concerned in order to get the Cabinet back on track.

Berri’s meeting Friday with FPM leader Michel Aoun was the first serious move toward finding a solution to the crisis sparked when Mikati suspended the Cabinet’s meetings following a dispute with ministers from Aoun’s parliamentary Change and Reform bloc over the issue of civil service appointments.

Aoun’s ministers had rejected Mikati’s proposed candidates to head the High Disciplinary Committee, a position traditionally reserved for Greek Catholics.

Aoun has accused Mikati of violating the Constitution with the suspension of the sessions.

For his part, Mikati has defended his decision to suspend Cabinet meetings, saying the move was designed to protect state institutions. The Cabinet’s bylaw obliges the minister to sign a decision taken by the Cabinet but it did not set a deadline for signing. Also, the bylaw does not force the prime minister to sign on the grounds that he either approves the Cabinet’s decisions or resigns.