Page 314 - Records of Bahrain (5) (ii)_Neat

634 Records of Bahrain

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recently been warned that ho would be forbidden
to appear as a wakil. The Bahama leaders v/ho

demand the dismissal of the existing magistrates
and their substitution by magistrates ohosen by
the people from the people ore not merely soeking
to improve the administration of justice, Their
object is that the Bahama as a community should
obtain more power. When discussing the matter of
the oourts with them they stated emphatically that
they did not suggest that they or any of the public —

exoept perhaps one young man who used to work in a
wakil*s office in India — were more qualified or
oapable of ooting as magistrates than those now
•holding the appointments, they considered that
because the Khalifah magistrates were not more expe­

rienced than the Shia man-in-the-street therefore
the Shias might rightly be represented on the courts.
9. The question of a Code has also come up
again, though it is significant that it has not been 9 ? ?
mentioned in any of the demands recently put forward^
£j)first suggested that the oourts should adont a regulajffi
oode about five years ago and@obtained Arabio oopies ^2^.
(X
of the Sudan Penal Code and various regulations which
since then have been referred to by magistrates on
the Bahrain Court for guidanoe in criminal oases though
no penal code has beon officially adopted, About
three years ago the Bahama made some agitation and
asked for a code though at that time, as now, most of

the general publio took no interest in the oode or
viewed it with some suspicion, A committee was appointed
to deal with the matter end. it bogan by codifying some
of the existing proclamations ouch as the diving rules,