During its weekly meeting, the Shura Council expresses its sincere congratulations to the wise leadership on the country’s celebrations marking the passage of ten years to the King’s accession and the National Day
Qudaybiah: Shura Council
The Shura Council raised its sincere congratulations and blessings on the occasion of the Kingdom’ celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of His Majesty the King’s accession and the 38th National Day to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of the Kingdom of Bahrain, to His Royal Highness Amir Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister, to His Royal Highness Amir Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander and to the People of Bahrain. The Council prays to God to of many returns of this happy occasion to the country and loyal people with more glory, fortitude, progress and development.
In its statement issued on this occasion at the beginning of its 10th session held this Monday morning under the chairmanship of His Excellency Mr. Ali bin Saleh Al-Saleh, Speaker of the Shura Council, the Council reasserted that this occasion which illuminated the sky of Bahrain for ten years and which was filled with abundant achievements is considered an annual stop for consolidation of allegiance to the nation and strengthening the bonds of national unity. It also represents an occasion to reminisce and recall the national achievements made by the Kingdom of Bahrain in the various fields. The Council expressed its extreme pride in and appreciation of the total and comprehensive developmental uprising in our believed Kingdom which encompasses all aspects of life, thanks to the national project launched by His Majesty the King and which succeeded with the grace of God and the blessing of our nation to translate it into an enlightened vision for a new page in our contemporary history, which carried and embraced the hopes and aspirations of the loyal people of Bahrain.
The Shura Council highly appreciates the great achievements made in the era of His Majesty the King and which drew an honorable image for the Kingdom of Bahrain on the global map. The Council takes this opportunity to renew the loyalty and allegiance to the King, coupled with the pledge to forge ahead on the path of progress and development, to exert maximum effort to support the blessed progression, by working as a legislative authority, an in constructive cooperation with House of Representatives and the Government, in order to materialize the vision of His Majesty the King, may God preserve him, on the need for integration and coordination between the authorities for the benefit and welfare of the nation and the citizens.
The Shura Council also issued a statement on the occasion of participation by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and his brothers, Their Majesties and their Highnesses the leaders of the GCC in the 30th session of the GCC Supreme Council which begins its activities today (Monday) in the Sisterly State of Kuwait and lasts until tomorrow.
The Council expressed its sincere wishes, hopes and prayers so that God may grant success to the GCC leaders and this summit to come up with and yield decisions leading to the support of the joint endeavor and contributing to the achievement by the GCC countries of walk further steps toward unity, integration and closer ties. The Council applauded the wise directives of His Majesty the King and his brothers the GCC leaders involving support of the GCC legislative councils so that they may serve as effective participants in drawing up the policies which support the progress and advancement of the GCC and contribute to shouldering the burdens of the current and future stages. The Council also prayed for the success of the Summit in the realization of the hopes and aspirations of the GCC nations.
In a relevent context, the Shura Council expressed its sincere congratulations to the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the nations of the world at large on the occasion of the sixty first anniversary of the international declaration on human rights.
In its communiqué on this occasion, the Shura Council describes this occasion as an occasion which marks the nations’ and countries’ celebrations of the achievements made in the consolidation of the general international principles which constitute the corner stone for the respect of human values for all humans irrespective of any discrimination on any basis, such as origin, race, ethnicity, color or religion, and which our Kingdom regards as an important authority for protection of rights against all forms of violations and violence.
The communiqué adds: “This anniversary comes in sync with the reform steps and the progress of democracy cause achieved by the Kingdom of Bahrain which grow stronger thanks to the great achievements and strides made by our beloved Kingdom and the massive and ongoing efforts of our wise leadership, headed by His Majesty the King, may God preserve him, within the framework of boosting the principles of human rights provided for in the constitution and the national work charter.”
It is the opinion of the Shura Council that the establishment of an independent national human rights institution in the Kingdom of Bahrain, to exercise its work with freedom and neutrality and seek to nurture and promote human rights, is considered a quantum leap to be added to the credit of the Kingdom of Bahrain in the field of human rights protection and strengthening of the commitment to apply the international standards to every action that is likely to protect and enhance the human rights record in the Kingdom and in a way that would constitute, by everybody’s admission, a model to be emulated owing to its honest record on the reality of human rights in Bahrain and its contents of pledges which reflect the Kingdom’s faith that nurturing and consolidation of the human rights culture is an ongoing process with no end.
Within the same context, and on the occasion celebrating the International Anti-Corruption Day, which coincided with the 9th of December 2009, the Shura Council reasserted support for all efforts intended to remove the obstacles and hurdles the development process and confirmed that it would take all legislative procedures to expedite endorsement of a draft law for ratification of the UN Anti-corruption Agreement. The Council highlighted in this regard Bahrain’s keen desire and relentless effort to boost the administrative and financial stability at a distance from all forms of corruption through its watchdog agencies. The Council reasserted the necessity of parliamentarian effort against corruption in order to ensure a prosperous future for the Kingdom and a better life for the citizens.
On his part, His Excellency the Speaker of the Council and on the occasion of the winding down of the 45th Regional Meeting of Female Parliamentarians last Thursday, expressed his thanks and appreciations to Her Royal Highness Princess Sabikha bint Ebrahim Al Khalifa, wife of the King of Bahrain and Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Woman, for her generous sponsorship of the meeting and the honor of attending celebration marking the opening session of the conference. His Excellency the Speaker of the Council expressed his thanks to the chairman and members of the conference steering committee, the participants for the Shura Council and House of Representatives, and to the organizing committee, and in particular Dr. Fawziya Al-Jaib, Director of the Parliamentarian Relations, Media and Protocol Department of the Council, for all the efforts exerted which projected the conference in an outstanding and successful manner by all standards and the subsequent good results achieved. His Excellency also thanked Hawar Society for its effective participation in the Palm Tree Planting Event organized by the Council in celebration of the 10th anniversary of His Majesty the King’s accession, in addition to all media people and journalist for their efforts in reporting the events of the conference.
In her turn, Her Excellency Ms. Dalal Al-Zayed, Chairperson of the Steering Committee of the Gulf Female Parliamentarians Conference, expressed Her Royal Highness Princess Sabikha bint Ebrahim Al Khalifa, wife of the King and Head of the Supreme Council for Woman, and to His Excellency the Speaker of the Shura Council for his follow up and continuous support during the organization process of the conference and His Excellency Mr. Jamal Mohammed Fakhro, the first Deputy of His Excellency the Speaker of the Council.
The tenth session of the Shura Council started its operations by ratification of the agenda of the 9th session and expression of final opinion on the Kingdom’s accession to OPRC international convention for the year 1990 by approval of the draft law attached to Royal Decree No.53 for the year 2009.
In a similar development, the final opinion was taken approving a draft law for ratification of the Free Trade Agreement between the GCC states and the Republic of Singapore, attached to Royal Decree No.65 for the year 2009 and a draft law for ratification of the Protocol on Prevention of Double Taxation between the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Government of the Republic of France attached to Royal Decree No.70 for the year 2009.
Then, the Members of the Council moved on to discuss the report of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security Committee regarding the draft law for ratification of the amended charter of the Islamic Conference Organization, attached to Royal Decree No.19 for the year 2009, and the draft law was approved on a final basis in preparation for referral to the government.
The Committee reconfirmed in its report that the new charter of the Islamic Conference Organization is considered a major and important step in the history and future of the Organization as the amended charter aims at preparing the Islamic World for the challenges of the 21st century and expresses a new vision of the Islamic World, new approaches for cooperation, gives new momentum to the Organization, reflects the ambitions of Muslim in better life, education and development and opens the door for cooperation with the other international and regional organizations.
This was followed by reading the report of the Services Committee on the decision of House of Representatives on the decision of the Shura Council regarding a draft law for establishment of a fund for the support and encouragement of the students who study inside and outside the Kingdom at their own expense. Their Excellencies the members and after exhaustive discussion of the draft law expressed their desire to stick to the Council’s previous decision to reject the draft law based on the justifications listed by the committee in its report, subject to the condition that the final opinion be taken in the upcoming session of the Council.
The Committee believed that the attached decision of House of Representatives did not contain any convincing additional arguments or reasons that call for its endorsement, thereby promoting the recommendations that the Shura Council insist on its previous decision on the draft law for a number of reasons, the most important of which is the lack of compatibility between the content of the draft law and the State’s trending related to the labor market strategy and the labor required for the labor market, doubt over the private sector’s move to support and finance the fund as long as it assumes the training costs of its workers through the Work Fund Commission.
In its decision, the Committee considered the draft law compromises the principle of equal opportunity, constitutes great financial burden on the state on the assumption that it conflicts with the principle of equality and equal opportunity among the students and requires the State to extend loans to the students who study at their own expense once the loan application is filed, amplified by the required documentation. The draft law fails to set a higher ceiling for the total amounts paid to the students in each academic year, besides the scholarships sponsored by the State and some private organizations and major companies for the top performing students and exemption of the sons of poor families from university fees. Also, establishment of this fund will require budgets which are in excess of the resources of the countries which are not committed to free university education.
The committee also pointed out that establishment of the fund is in conflict with the State’s efforts to reform education for consistency with the labor market and creation of other branches of education after high school, such as teachers’ institutes, applied colleges, polytechnic and other training institutes to extend the opportunity to the students who do not joint university education to continue their education in one of the technical specializations required by the labor market, let alone the fact that Bahrain Development Bank extends loan to university students whose installments are paid on a later date in accordance with specific conditions. In addition to that the draft law was devoid of accurate and precise standards for selection of the students as well as the controls which would ensure sustained support of the students by the fund and that fund according to the draft law in its current form is nothing more than a charitable fund.
Based on the discussions of the third supplementary report of the Services Committee on the draft law for the year 2008, regarding full time assignment during preparation and participation in sports games and tournaments (prepared in line with a proposed draft law filed by House of Representatives), approval was given for amendment of article 3 of the draft law in the manner proposed and in accordance with the amendments proposed by Their Excellencies during the session, and the third article of the said article was returned to the Legislative Committee for rephrasing.
Then, Their Excellencies the Members moved on to discuss the report of the financial and Economic Affairs Committee on the decision of House of Representatives regarding the decision of the Shura Council on a draft law for amendment of the provisions of Law No.28 for the year 2006, on future generations reserves.
The Committee stated in its report that it reviewed in detail the decision of House of Representatives to stick to its previous decision to deduct 5% and reached at the difficulty involved in accepting such proposal for the reasons previously explained, namely that the jump from one dollar to 5%, as well as the other proposed deductions which will be imposed on the refined export sales and one dollar of the sale price for each one million thermal units of gas consumed by any of the companies at the subsidized price for industrial purposes) will require a feasibility studies to clarify its positive and negative consequences and impacts on the national economy. Also, the propose deduction will include all sales and not only crude oil, which may lead to an increase in the sale price of gas to the companies which do not consume natural gas subsidized for industrial purposes, which may have a negative impact on their competitive edge. That increase (or deduction) will be in the form of a free or tax on those companies, which is in conflict with the State’s policies as well as the constitution which established for the public tax a special system which must be taken into consideration when such tax or fee is imposed.
The Financial Committee stated that deduction of 5% will lead to a deficit in the public budget if the prices drop below 50 dollars. For example, and in accordance with the Ministry of Finance’s data, if the 5% proposal is to be applied to the figures of the year 2007, it will record a deficit of 19.3 million dinars.
Bases on these justifications enumerated by the Financial Committee, Their Excellencies the Members of the Council expressed their approval of the recommendation of the Committee to stick to the pervious decision and reject the draft law on the condition that the final opinion be taken during the upcoming session of the Council.
The Council decided to postpone consideration of the Services Committee on a draft law for issuance of the labor law in the private sector, attached to Royal Decree No.45 for the year 2006 to a next session.
The session concluded by a review of the comments and remarks of Their Excellencies the Members of the Council on the report of the Shura Council delegation which participated in the fourth conference of the League of Senate and Shura Councils and similar Councils in Africa and the Arab World which was held in the City of Rabat in the Kingdom of Morocco during the period 12 to 13 November 2009.