Commotion in Bahrain Parliament!

Manama : MPs had an intense discussion during their weekly meeting yesterday on joining an international agreement, pushing the Council’s speaker to halt the session until order was restored.

This came as many of the lawmakers disagreed to postponing the discussion of a report that was scheduled to be discussed yesterday. The report was supposed to be submitted by the Council’s Woman and Child Committee on joining the international agreement of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

According to the committee’s Chairperson, MP Roua Al Hayki, “the committee’s report was scheduled in the council’s agenda without consulting the committee”, adding that “the committee’s work on the final report is planned to be completed on March 29.”

However, the Council’s Speaker Ahmed bin Ibrahim Al Mulla rejected Al Hayki’s claims and stressed that “the report was to be submitted on March 22” and the “Council’s presidency has the right to include any report in its work agenda.”

This caused the MPs to start a long discussion on the matter, with many of them speaking during the session without permission. The parliament’s dome echoed with the voices of MPs, as their opinions varied on the matter.

After the session was suspended, as per the decision of Al Mulla for 15 minutes, a voting process was initiated on granting the committee more time to submit its report. Thirty MPs voted for postponing the discussion until next week’s session.

Meanwhile, Woman and Child Committee member MP Anas Buhindi told DT News that he strongly rejects the inefficiency of the Council’s General Secretariat, which is responsible for preparing the weekly work agenda and listing matters to be discussed during the sessions.

Supporting his claims with documents, Buhindi said, “The committee was given until March 29 to finalise its report. The date mentioned by the Council’s speaker isn’t accurate.”