The Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee has referred the Civil Service Law to the court for ‘the unconstitutionality’ of some of its clauses, especially article 51 that regulates the recruitment of Bahrainis in government organisations, head of the panel and member of Al Wefaq bloc Khalil Marzooq told Khaleej Times on Thursday.
He said the court would have a minimum of six months to review reasons given for the unconstitutionality of the law.
“The article states that foreigners could be recruited only if their employment leads to public benefit but it does not explain the types or kinds of benefits that could legalise their recruitment.”
Marzooq said that according to the latest figures there are 4,000 non-Bahraini advisers and more than 10,000 expatriate civilian employees working in the public sector. “We want to amend the article so as to state conditions that should be fulfilled before recruiting expatriates.”
Regarding over dependency on non-Bahrainis in some professions, mainly medical jobs, Marzooq blamed the government, calling for training of locals in sectors with low percentage of local workforce.
“Parliament or my bloc is not against the recruitment of expatriates but they should be appointed only at places where local professionals are not available and the government should train locals to gradually replace them.”
The law also does not address the issue of contract of foreign manpower and non-Bahraini experts who are temporary appointed in certain government projects.
The constitutional court gave its verdict in 2006 on the unconstitutionality of the land acquisition law.
The law forced property owners to hand over their land to the authorities against an amount decided by the government.
The lands were taken to build public utilities. The verdict led to the freezing of many government projects and redrafting of the law.
