Chairmen and vice-chairmen of all permanent committees of the Shura Council have retained their posts for the second time in its history.
The first time was last year when the current line-up was first elected.
Khalid Al Maskati was re-elected financial and economic affairs committee chairman for the 21st consecutive year yesterday.
This is unprecedented as no one has been re-elected chairman so many times to any committee in the Shura Council or Parliament since the start of the National Assembly in October 2002.
Mr Al Maskati’s re-election came as top posts on the Shura Council’s key committees were filled during its weekly session yesterday.
Redha Faraj was re-elected vice-chairman of the financial and economic affairs committee for the eighth consecutive time.
For the 15th year running, Dalal Al Zayed was elected chairwoman of the legislative and legal affairs committee, and Dr Shaikh Adel Al Maawada vice-chairman for the eighth time.
Dr Mohammed Hassan was elected public utilities and environment affairs committee chairman for the eighth time, with Juma Al Kaabi vice-chairman for the 14th time.
Former Information Affairs Minister Ali Al Rumaihi was elected for the fifth year running as the foreign affairs, defence and national security committee chairman while Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa was also elected vice-chairman for the fifth year in a row.
Dr Jameela Al Salman was elected services committee chairwoman and Talal Al Mannai as vice-chairman, both for the third time running.
Ejlal Bubshait was re-elected as woman and child committee chairwoman and Leena Qassim also re-elected as vice-chairwoman.
The committee chairmen and chairwomen will join Shura Council chairman Ali Saleh Al Saleh and his two deputies, Jamal Fakhro and second vice-chairwoman Dr Jihad Al Fadhel, in the general-secretariat office.
All committee chairpersons have been directed by Mr Al Saleh to urgently push ahead with legislation.
For branch committees, Redha Monfardi was re-elected chairman of the youth and sports committee and Hisham Al Qassab as vice-chairman, while for the first time Ali Al Shehabi was elected as human rights committee chairman and Nancy Khadoury as vice-chairwoman for the first time.
Yesterday, a 12-member committee chaired by Mr Fakhro was appointed to prepare a draft reply to His Majesty King Hamad’s opening address to the National Assembly’s new term last week.
Four members of the nine-member executive parliamentary committee, responsible for overseas participation and selections, were also elected.
They are: Mr Fakhro, Ms Al Zayed, Mr Al Shehabi and Dr Ali Al Haddad.
They will join four MPs who will be elected later by Parliament.
The executive committee is headed by National Assembly and Parliament Speaker Ahmed Al Musallam.
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