The Hajj and Housing Committee of the Shura Council called for clarifying the mechanisms for providing housing for people with special needs, widows, orphans and divorced women without a breadwinner within the national housing strategy, as well as reconsidering the transition period for a greater role for the private sector so that this period is reduced to less than ten years, and reconsidering the estimates of the latent and actual demand for housing and the role of vacant units in meeting the total demand, and the committee recommended that the strategy be updated every five years in light of the development plan and developments and changes on the ground.

. <The Shura Council is expected to discuss the national housing strategy in its session held next Monday, and sources revealed that the Hajj, Housing and Services Committee stipulated the approval of the strategy, whose preparation phase spent five years, to fulfill a number of observations highlighted by its study, foremost of which is the need to coordinate with municipal affairs, the private sector and relevant authorities to implement the strategy, and recalibrate the financial analyses contained therein, including those related to financial burdens on citizens, the role of secondary markets in providing liquidity, and the role of small and medium enterprises in providing liquidity.

In another direction, the Shura discusses next Monday a report on the inclusion of a defamation penalty for the system of protected areas for wildlife and the system of trade in endangered species and their products, and discusses the appropriateness of amending the Civil Service Law to allow state employees to work commercially, according to a proposal submitted by member Ahmed Zailai, while Tuesday discusses the report of a proposal to add an article to the Civil Service Law to regulate the dates and hours of official work for government agencies, submitted by Council members Mohammed Al Naji and Atta Al Sbeiti.