‘Give reasons’ call in Bahrain’s parliament row

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Two of parliament’s last three sessions ended within 15 minutes and one was disrupted for three hours, as MPs clashed over whether the minister should be quizzed or not.

The row blew up after parliament’s general-secretariat claimed the questioning was unconstitutional.

Parliament chairman Khalifa Al Dhahrani has promised to look into a new list of questions with any reference to the "Bandargate" scandal deleted.

He has assigned parliament’s four legal consultants to study it, parliament first vice-chairman and Al Asala bloc president Ghanim Al Buainain said.

"Those opposing us say that Bandergate is still in court and the irregularities we are asking to be probed happened during the previous term, so we have no right under the constitution to ask for the files to be opened," claimed Al Wefaq MP Jawad Fairooz.

"This is wrong because we are here to ask or question anything that the government has done past, present and future.

"If other MPs are right in what they say then the questions we have asked ministers to answer are all wrong because they date back to the 70s.

"Most of the laws we are discussing were issued in the 70s, so (according to their logic) they are wrong and we cannot amend them because they have been issued by a previous Cabinet.

"Our probe committees would also be wrong because they focus on irregularities that happened years before the formation of parliament."

Mr Fairooz was referring to Bahrain’s two pension funds facing bankruptcy and the questioning of three ministers involved, who were all cleared.

Al Wefaq’s new questioning focuses on whether the minister violated the constitution by conducting personal financial work during office hours, allegedly violating tender and purchase criteria, using his ministerial post for personal gain and benefiting from his post.

Mr Fairooz said questioning would focus on personal bank cheques issued by the minister during office hours.

"Money has been also spent on the e-voting project, although it has not been given green light to go ahead.

"The minister has also admitted in the Press that the cheques are real and have been used for personal deals," he said.

 

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