Age of marriage returns to parliament, Islamic banking laws revised

Yemen’s parliament approved on Saturday the third round of discussions regarding last month’s tentative agreement to amend article 65 of the law governing the term of parliament, which will add more two years to the current Prime Minister’s six years in office.

The agendas for upcoming meetings includes the completion of discussions regarding the Codification of the Islamic Sharia Law Committee’s report concerning the amendment of some provisions of the personal status law. The most discussed of these is an article determining 17-years as the appropriate age of marriage in the country, which was already approved by parliament, though some members demanded it be reconsidered, pursuant to the parliament’s internal law.

In addition, the agenda contains a review of several draft laws and reports, as well as a number of difficult questions for some of the country’s deputy-ministers. Parliament also reviewed the financial committee’s report concerning the government’s demand for the amendment of law 21 from 1996 regarding Islamic banks. The committee approved the sharing of capital from non-Yemeni individuals, institutions, companies and banks with the capital of Islamic banks, which is in addition to the amount of 20 percent previously determined by the law. However, it allowed foreign Islamic and trade banks to open independent branches, pursuant to Islamic Sharia transactions. The committee cancelled article 26 of the Islamic banking law, which offers Islamic banks operating in the country certain privileges in the area of investment law.
The committee also added an article stipulating the application of a single tax system to deal with the buying and selling of real estate, pursuant to Islamic Murabaha, the Islamic credit system. This system was previously used to impose a double taxation on the Islamic banks during both the purchase and the sale of real estate, the committee explained. 

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