Excerpts of debates in Saudi Arabia's Majlis ash-Shura or Consultative Council are to be shown in a weekly television programme for the first time as part of moves towards political openness, a member of the advisory body told AFP on Saturday. "What has been agreed upon now in the majlis is that there should be more transparency with the media and a summary of the topics under discussion," council member Ihsan Bu Hulaiga told AFP. The programme, which was to begin broadcasting Saturday night, and thereafter every Saturday, will last 30 minutes.
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The consensus among the 120 council members, who deal primarily with economic and social issues, was that there should be a continuous and gradual move towards openness, according to Bu Hulaiga. "In the end the council is part of this country and it is without doubt that the (transmission) is a good thing for the council as well as informing the Saudi citizen of the council's work, especially when there are cases that affect them," he said. The council that was set up in 1993 has been particularly active since the Sept 11, 2001 suicide attacks on the United States, debating issues ranging from citizenship laws to levying taxes on the estimated seven million expatriates who work in the kingdom. Last month, Saudi Arabia announced that municipal polls in the kingdom would take place within a year to elect half the members of new municipal councils. Semi-official reports have since said polls would be held within three years to fill one-third of the 120 seats on the Consultative Council, which until now has been an all-appointed body offering advice to the government, and that half the members of regional councils would be elected within two years. Pro-reform activists have twice petitioned Crown Prince and de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah bin AbdulAziz since the beginning of the year to demand the liberalization of Saudi Arabia's conservative system, based on a strict interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law. |