had to be put on the back burner because of last week's political upheaval.

The Cabinet re-shuffle and defection of Government MP Grace Bell to the opposition meant that a meeting of the Private Bills Committee has had to be cancelled.

Mrs. Bell, along with newly appointed Youth Development Minister John Barritt and Senate leader Alf Oughton were forced to stand down from the eight-man committee because of their new roles.

And that means that two private members bills submitted by the Bank of Bermuda and Belco over the 60/40 rule cannot be discussed until the committee reconvenes after recruiting three replacements.

The Bank of Bermuda is seeking to get an exemption from the Island's law prohibiting foreign ownership above 40 percent in a local company in a bid to get a secondary listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange. But critics to the move fear that, by passing the bill, Parliament would set a precedent which would open the floodgates for other companies to seek exemption.

Another bill has been submitted by Belco which is seeking exemption from a rule limiting a company from holding equity in a local company.

And a third firm, Bermuda Properties Ltd, is still waiting to see whether it will be allowed to sell off it's Tucker's Town property.

Yesterday clerk to the committee Clark Somner said he believed a decision on the three controversial bills could still be made by the committee before Parliament adjourns in the summer.

"We need to have at least a couple of new members brought onto the committee because of Grace Bell's switch and the fact that John Barritt is now in the Cabinet and Alf Oughton is head of the Senate,'' Mr. Somner said.

"The last meeting was in March. We did have another meeting scheduled for yesterday afternoon but because of the changes that had to be cancelled.

There's no set schedule for when meetings are held, they just take place when required.

"But there's still time for Private Bills to go through the House of Assembly. We are hoping to have another meeting at the end of this month when we should be getting back to those issues and making a decision before the end of the summer recess so there's still time this month and in June. It's obviously very frustrating for those concerned but I believe the committee did discuss these issues at the last meeting but didn't make enough progress to come to a decision.''