Bahrain's parliament questions three ministers

Heads of parliamentary blocs in the Bahraini parliament asked yesterday for the interrogation of three ministers in the course of the investigation held by the parliamentary committee concerning status of two retirement funds.

Chairman of the parliamentary investigation committee, parliamentarian Farid Ghazi said that all parliamentary blocs agreed to submit the inquiry, noting that the parliamentarians showed a united position.

He explained that 17 parliamentarians representing the five parliamentary blocs in the council, in addition to some independent parliamentarians representing all political strata at the council, signed the request.

The ministers who will be subjected to this interrogation, which is the first of its kind in Bahrain since the beginning of the parliamentary life, one year before, are former minister of labor, Abdul Nabi al-Shu'la, the current minister of labor, Majeed al-Alawi, and the finance minister, Abdullah Hassan Seif.

The current minister of labor presides over the council for running the general commission for social insurance which supervises insurance for private sector's employees and workers, while the minister of finance presides over the board of the general commission for the retirement funds which supervises government employees insurance.