RIYADH, 1 February 2007 — During a discussion of a report about the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Shoura Council members demanded that provisions be made to provide the commission with legal support.
Shoura members requested that a legal division be established with lawyers and legal consultants defending commission members and taking court action against people who defame the institution and its members, according to Al-Madinah newspaper. The members also urged the Ministry of the Interior to expedite applications filed by the commission and called for a review of the commission’s rules.
Hatim Al-Sharif said that the commission needed to have a representative to follow up on cases transferred to the judicial system and called for the commission to increase the educational and professional competency of commission members by employing people with the necessary expertise.
He also noted that a Higher Institute for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice must start operating from the Um Al-Qura University.
“The committee members who lack the required qualifications must be replaced through either early retirement or other means,” said Al-Sharif. He noted that there is a deficiency in the committee’s administrative cadre and that it needed to become more media savvy to highlight its achievements and remove the misconceptions of the wider public.
“The committee is a body prone to making mistakes and errors just like any other public body,” said Al-Sharif. “We have to support the committee financially and increase the number of its members. We need to give them free health insurance like other employees and increase the number of police officers who accompany them.”
Al-Sharif added that municipalities need to dedicate specific locations in different cities and districts to serve as stations from which the commission can operate.
Shoura Council Chairman Dr. Saleh Bin-Humaid rejected remarks by some members saying that there is no tension between the commission and members of the public.
“But there is a problem, which needs to be considered,” Bin-Humaid said, adding that the commission is a public body governed by a special system whose members are penalized if found to be violating the system.
Bin-Humaid commented on a Shoura participant’s call to prohibit members of the commission from entering public places such as restaurants. He said, “We can’t ask the commission members not to go into public areas. According to the system they have access to all public areas. It’s their responsibility to go to shopping malls and other public locations.”
Bin-Humaid also gave assurances that the commission is playing a major role in preserving the country’s stability in terms of religion, ethics and security. He noted that the commission has come a long way since its inception and that many of its members are university graduates.
Dr. Khalil Al-Khalil believes that the commission’s outbursts in public areas like restaurants cannot be justified and called on the body to stop such aberrant behavior. Al-Khalil stressed the importance of projecting a positive image of the Kingdom abroad.
One of the Shoura members called for the designing of a uniform for all commission members to wear.
Dr. Abdullah Dahlan described the commission as a safety valve that preserves society. He called for a plan to increase the interaction between the commission and the wider community, adding that there is a lot of tension between members of the public and commission members. Dahlan added that the commission has many advantages, which the wider society needs to be educated about.
