BD2m Parliament building to be opened in 2017

Manama : Parliament Secretary General Abdulla bin Khalaf Al Dosari announced some of the major projects of the Council, including the construction of a new BD2 million building that is expected to open its doors before the end of 2017.

“The project’s tender will be awarded by the middle of next month. It will include the Speaker’s office, meeting halls, guest rooms and committees and other facilities,” Al Dosari announced. 

The House of Representatives yesterday also discussed its main achievements during the past six months, the period of the second session of the fourth legislative term.

Al Dosari said in a press meet yesterday that “the Parliament has made some milestone achievements during the six-month-long session.”

He said 22 MPs and 190 of the Council’s employees benefited from 190 training courses in the last six months.

MPs paid BD113 per session

Al Dosari commented on the issue of MPs’ absence from some of the Council’s weekly sessions, stating that the secretariat is in the process of issuing a code of conduct that will regulate MPs’ performance and ethics.

“Each MP that is absent without an acceptable excuse will be deprived of a BD113 allowance that is paid to MPs for their attendance. This amount has been set in accordance with certain standards and criteria,” Al Dosari explained.

No cases filed by Council on behalf of MPs

Al Dosari also commented on the matter of referring 61 cases of insulting and defaming against individuals to the Public Prosecution.

He affirmed that the cases filed against social media users was a result of “extraordinary bad behaviour and personal insults” against the Council.

“All of the cases were related to direct insults of the Council and not MPs. MPs are free to peruse legal channels against people who insult them,” Al Dosari said, while denying any knowledge of further information as the matter is in the hands of the Public Prosecution.

Statistics revealed

During the conference, Al Dosari revealed that the Council had passed 12 law decrees and 18 law proposals in the second session of the ongoing fourth legislative term (2014-2018).

He said that a total of 397 matters referred to the Council were passed in the last six months. “40 matters were mutually agreed on between the Parliament and Shura Council, and were referred to the government. As many as 91 parliamentary queries were passed and 69 were dropped due to technical reasons.

Bahrain’s parliamentary experiments appreciated

Al Dosari added that the international parliamentary community expressed its appreciation of some of Bahrain’s parliamentary initiatives.

He said that the Council’s community partnership programme received positive response internationally, adding that a presentation will be reviewed by the International Parliamentary Union during its next meeting.