Abu Dhabi: Mohammad Ahmad Al Murr was elected speaker of the Federal National Council (FNC) without any contest here yesterday, while Dr Amal Al Qubaisi created history when she was nominated as the first deputy speaker of the House, a position held by a woman for the first time in the country.
Dr Abdullah Hamad Al Shamsi, an elected member from Ajman, was named the second deputy speaker.
The FNC also named eight standing committees. They are the Interior and Defence Affairs; Financial, Economic and Industrial Affairs; Legislative Affairs; Education, Youth, Media and Cultural Affairs; Health, Labour and Social Affairs; Foreign, Planning, Petroleum, Mineral Agricultural and Fisheries Affairs; Islamic, Endowments and Public Facilities and Grievances Committee.
Arduous responsibility
The 56-year-old Al Murr, who was born in Dubai, stressed the message of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan that the membership of the Federal National Council "is not a privilege or societal relevance, but an arduous responsibility placed upon you by people who have entrusted and nominated you".
Al Murr also seconded Shaikh Khalifa's directives to the members to "come up to this confidence and commit yourselves to the interest of the nation and the interests of citizens and you will have our full support in your endeavours".
Dr Amal, who is also the first woman to be elected to the House in 2006 and has returned for her second term, told Gulf News that it is a great honour for her on being elected as the first deputy speaker of the House and also to represent Abu Dhabi, the capital of the country.
"This is the spirit of the federation. The UAE is going in the right direction in being a unique and developed country," she said.
Dr Amal said that the people and the leaders have full faith in Emirati women who are given a chance to be FNC members and now elected as a deputy speaker.
"We hope that women in the future will be FNC speakers. I think this is the first woman in the Gulf to be deputy to the speaker of the parliament," she said
"I have to thank our leaders and Her Highness Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak, Chairperson of UAE Women's Association, who is great supporter of women," she said.
Dr Al Shamsi, who earlier delivered the welcome speech at the opening of the session called for expanding the role of the house to enable its members to represent people's needs and ambitions in development plans.
