The Shoura Council is looking at a proposal to raise the minimum age for drivers of private cars and motorbikes to 20 and for heavy vehicles to 23 in light of reports that a majority of road accidents involve young drivers.

The suggestion came from Ahmad Al-Mefreh, a member of the council.

The council may suggest amendments to rules that state that traffic violations have to be registered in the name of the guardian or the one who gave permission to the youth to drive his vehicle.

In addition, a new violation to address driving under the effect of mental stimulants could be introduced.

Al-Mefreh’s proposal defines the procedures and mechanisms for stopping and arresting suspicious drivers. If they are proved to be under the effect of drugs or mental stimulants, they would be referred to the authorities.

In another development, the human resource and administrative committee of the Shoura Council is studying a proposal by former governor of social security, and current Shoura member Suleiman Saad Al-Hameed related to passing legislation to establish a retirement reserve fund.

The committee recommended studying the suggestion next Monday, saying that this problem demands radical solutions, one of which might be the establishment of such a fund in the future.

The human rights committee also completed studying a suggestion by Zainab Abu Talib to amend the anti-corruption strategy, to distribute to entities included in the Nazaha commission certificate.

The committee rejected the suggestion as unsuitable and difficult to implement on the ground the legal and procedural outcomes of giving Nazaha certificates to government authorities, which need to be renewed every three years according to the suggestion. Granting these certificates could imply that these entities are above corruption and free of violation during the validity of the certificate, while in fact violations could occur at any time and from any person.

The human rights committee confirmed that the suggestion has been rejected because the commission is still young and is facing a lot of difficulties. Such a suggestion might affect its basic role of protecting integrity and fighting corruption and instead direct its focus on giving integrity certificates.