As part of the royal pardons of convicts and after the approval of the Cabinet led by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa of the memorandum of the Ministerial Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs and Fiscal Balance regarding the regulatory procedures for housing services, the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning started to list housing applications of those covered in royal pardons and alternative sentencing to enable them to benefit from housing services per the laws and rules.
The General Directorate of Verdict Enforcement and Alternative Sentencing is implementing the royal directives and cabinet order by providing the Housing and Urban Planning Ministry with the list to carry out the required procedures to look into their applications per the conditions and rules.
The mechanisms for dealing with different categories have also been put in place to allow the most significant percentage of them to get housing services. All the required procedures for the beneficiaries have been completed, and they have been given no-objection certificates that qualify them to benefit from the designated services and ensure their reintegration into society within the framework of moving forward and in partnership with the relevant sectors in implementing humanitarian programmes and initiatives that benefit the nation and its people.
In a related context, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning explained that, in coordination with the Ministry of Interior, a mechanism has been put in place to study housing applications for beneficiaries of the royal pardon and alternative sentencing to ensure the applications meet the standards and conditions for eligibility for housing services provided that they are exempted from the legal period specified for amending the status of the application.
The ministry added that the mechanism stipulates amending the requirements by calculating only the years of the application that have been fulfilled and that the housing allowance will be given to those entitled to it retroactively from the date of issuance of the royal pardon, in addition to taking into account the humanitarian cases of the families of the convicts. It noted the ongoing keenness to secure more opportunities for those included in the royal pardon to be integrated into society and bear the societal responsibility entrusted to them to contribute to the process of comprehensive construction and development.
