Bahrain MPs have approved all of the Shura Council's amendments to a highly anticipated new land acquirement law.

However, they voiced their concern about an article allowing the government to acquire Waqf (endowment) land without a court order.

The old law, which allowed the government to acquire land for development, was axed after the Constitutional Court ruled it unconstitutional in January 2007.

Numerous government projects have been halted as ministries and government organisations have been unable to purchase land, as a result.

Parliament finished revising the law in April last year, before submitting it to the Shura Council, which refused to take a vote in May in the last day of second term without carrying out amendments.

Councillors then continued discussions in October, before making major amendments to the law, which parliament forcefully accepted yesterday.

Now the law will be sent back to the Shura Council despite MPs approval of their amendments yesterday because of a conflict on one article.

"The government has the right to acquire private land from the public according to the terms stated in this law, but how can it take endowment lands without a Sharia court order saying that it is acceptable to take it," said MP Jassim Al Saeedi.

"We accept other amendments, although we disagree with some of them, but this article has to have the court order clause because those lands are special.

"MPs are confident that the council would approve the law, since a lot of the government projects are stalled, and I don't think that this amendment would be of a problem to them."

Al Saeedi said that the new law was stronger than the previous one because it would ensure people were being fairly compensated for their land.

"The previous law allowed the government to take any land it wanted, even if it didn't need it, for prices it determined rather than market prices," he said.

"This forced people to accept any rate offered to them, even if they were in the losing end, since the government would take their land anyway.

"The new law involves tougher procedures, but if the government was in real need of the land, it will be easy for them to acquire it. Of course with their owners' consent, rather than pull it from their hands as easily as before.

"With this law, everyone will be somehow happy as people's rights will be protected and it can go on with stalled projects, which the people are waiting for over the past two-and-a-half years," he added.-TradeArabia News Service