"When he took office, Mr Khasawneh raised hopes for reform. He vowed to end election-rigging, engage Jordan’s Islamists and deal with popular demands roused by the Arab awakening. To his chagrin, he soon felt he was mere window-dressing for a shadow government run by the intelligence services. His overtures to the Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan’s biggest political organisation, floundered, after the authorities drafted an electoral law limiting single parties in the 138-seat parliament to only five MPs. His efforts to end the ostracising of Hamas, a Palestinian branch of the brotherhood, which the king once expelled, fizzled. The anti-corruption investigation, announced with a fanfare, has ground to a halt. His justice minister watched powerlessly as a military tribunal jailed a journalist who had accused the king of suspending an inquiry into bribes concerning a housing scheme."