Minister’s absence annoys MPs in Parliament meeting

Parliamentarians were upset during their weekly meeting yesterday, as they claimed that Ministers disregarded and dodged their questions.

This was stated after Education Minister Dr. Majid Al Nuaimi didn’t attend the Council’s weekly session to apparently attend a celebration rehearsal. The Minister was absent even though in the meeting’s agenda it was included that the Minister would be present to answer a Parliamentary query that was submitted by MP Jalal Kadhem on the development of education outcomes in public schools.

Expressing his disappointment, Kadhem said, “The Minister is parrying answering the query. Why would the topic be included in the meeting’s agenda if the Minister has other commitments on this particular day?”

The council’s Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee Head Ali Al Ateesh commented, “It takes two months for MPs’ questions to be included in the agenda, and when it does, Ministers suddenly have other arrangements. There is lack of coordination between the Council and Parliament and Information Affairs Ministry, as it confirmed to us that the Minister would attend the session.”

Al Ateesh added, “We must not be disregarded by the Ministers. We include a query to be discussed in the meeting and the Minister attends a celebration rehearsal. We will include it in the next week’s meeting agenda and we hope that the Education Minister will not be busy patronising a ceremony.”

Parliament and Information Affairs Minister Isa bin Abdulrahman Al Hammadi clarified: “There is coordination between all Ministries. Dr. Al Nuaimi has apologised for his absence owing to a key event that will take place in the Kingdom.” 

However, this didn’t prevent the MPs from complaining among each other and expressing their rejection of the Minister’s absence.