Bahrain Mirror: MP Khaled Bu Enq said that 8 MPs have signed an official request to question Health Minister Faeqa Al-Saleh and the request was submitted to the council's office.

Bu Enq explained in a statement to a local newspaper that the questioning includes three main issues:  the shortage of a number of medicines in the Salmaniya medical complex and health centers, the delay of therapeutic appointments in the various specialized departments in the Salmaniya complex, and the deterioration of the quality of medical services, which led to severe negligence.

He continued that he and the signatories of the interrogation are not convinced with the justifications of minister Al-Saleh on many of the mistakes and errors that lead to damaging the constitutional rights of citizens.

But the questioning of ministers is a complex and somehow impossible process, as the presidency is now supposed to initiate legal and regulatory action. The request for questioning is expected to be presented at a meeting of the Bureau of the Chamber of Deputies scheduled on Sunday. After meeting the formal requirements for questioning, the President of the Council, Fawzia Zainal must form a committee to examine its seriousness, and the latter then presents her report to vote in plenary.

The Committee for examining the seriousness of interrogation includes the chairpersons of the five committees and Their MPs who are not the petitioners, and the latter must submit their report to the House of Representatives no later than seven days from the date on which the interrogation was presented.

The committee is chaired by the oldest member.

According to the council's rules of procedure, the report of the Committee is to be presented before the Council for a vote, without discussion, and the questioning is not considered to be serious if it was not approved by 27 MPs out of 40.

This is considered the first interrogation made in the 2018 Parliament and the second for the Minister of Health since the resumption of parliamentary acts in 2002.

The first interrogation was presented by MPs to the former health minister Sadiq Al-Shihabi. It was signed by 26 MPs in May 2015.

The previous interrogation dealt with the ministry's irregularities in the reports of the National Audit Office, the weakness of ambulance services, the imposition of health fees on Bahraini and foreign workers in the private sector, the lack of interest in consultants, and the differences in salaries between Bahraini and foreign physicians.

The concerned committee considered the interrogation serious, but the House of Representatives overthrew it with 23 MPs voting on it as serious, with the regulation requiring the approval of 27 MPs.

Arabic Version