Bahrain - The government has returned 19 pending legislations to Parliament for review, out of a total of 128, angering MPs.

Parliament and Shura Council Affairs Minister Ghanim Al Buainain had earlier said that the legislations were divided among 23 ministries and government bodies.

He said yesterday that the pending legislations were from 2006 and only 19 would be given back to Parliament, with no justification necessary for scraping the laws.

“The by-laws and constitution don’t make it mandatory for the government to give a reason to Parliament when it comes to dropping a law or proposal,” said Mr Al Buainain.

“I urge MPs to review existing proposals as there are decrees and laws that have been drafted since then that cancel out the pending legislation, which means that giving them back to Parliament is useless and obsolete. We don’t have to justify why we decided to drop these proposals.”

Meanwhile, MP Mohammed Al Maarafi said that scraping 101 pending legislations “was a waste of hard work and effort” exerted by Parliament as well as the government and the Shura Council.

His concern was shared by Parliament’s first deputy speaker Abdulnabi Salman, who said that scraping the laws negated existing co-operation between legislative authorities.

“How is the government giving us 19 pending legislations and cancelling more than a 100?” asked Parliament’s second deputy speaker Ahmed Qarrata.

“These are all important laws that touch the livelihood of citizens, and yet the government just scrapped them with the strike of a pen. This is unacceptable.”

MPs also discussed housing issues with Housing and Urban Planning Minister Amna Al Romaihi present in Parliament to highlight the ministry’s initiatives which include five new housing towns, innovative financing schemes and more collaboration with the private sector.

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