Manama: King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa has ratified a new traffic law that toughens punishments for road violations.

The new law that took seven years to promulgate after it was approved by the parliament includes jail terms of up to one year or a fine of 2,000 Bahraini dinars, or both, for drunk-driving and prison sentences of up to six months and a 500-dinar for exceeding speed limits.

However, the new law that replaces the one ratified 35 years ago does not include a highly controversial article that sought to bar expatriates from driving unless their occupation required it.

The controversy was triggered by a parliamentary decision to curb the number of foreigners who could be allowed to drive their personal vehicles.

The Council of Representatives, the elected chamber of the bicameral parliament, said that the bar on foreigners would help ease growing traffic congestion in the country.

Several MPs said that there were too many cars on the roads and that one solution was to limit the number of vehicles by not allowing foreigners whose job did not require them to use personal transportation to drive.

Expatriate employees would instead use company buses or public transport to and from their work, the lawmakers said.

Article 20 of the traffic law draft stipulates “foreigners living in Bahrain may not obtain a driver’s license or drive a vehicle unless the nature of their work requires it.”

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) citizens are not concerned by the suggested ban, the article said.

The GCC is made up of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The controversial article was also passed by the appointed members of the Shura Council, the parliament’s second chamber, with 15 votes to eight, following a plea by the chairman for a yes-vote in a bid to have the traffic law enacted after seven years of debates and arguments.

However, several members said that they could not support an article that would discriminate between people or that was most likely to cause economic and social issues.

“A major concern beyond the constitutionality of the article and the human rights issue is how it can be implemented,” Jamal Fakhro, the first deputy chairman of the Shura Council, said. “There are serious worries that the article could be exploited by some people to create a parallel black market. There is also the concern that the ban could be widened to include other categories in the future,” he said on May 29 before the vote took place.

On June 25, King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa referred the article to the Constitutional Court to assess whether it breached the constitution.

The Court in a landmark decision earlier this month said that Article 20 of the draft law was unconstitutional, as it did not comply with provisions of the constitution.

Foreigners make up slightly more than half of the total population of the kingdom. They are mostly from unskilled workers from Asian countries working in the construction and service sectors.