ISO 9001:2008 CERTIFIED NEWSPAPER Monday 31 December 2012 18 Safar 1434 - Volume 17 Number 5565 Price: QR2 Qatar’s GDP Gasquet grows by targets 3.9 percent Doha final Business | 17 Sport | 27 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780 Ibrahimovic joins PSG training in Doha Egypt court to Rent contracts rule on legality of Upper House major hurdle CAIRO: Egypt’s highest court is to examine the legiti- macy of the upper house of parliament, a case likely to increase the legal uncertainty for family visas of the country’s political tran- sition and leave it without a legislature. The Supreme Constitutional Municipality attestation mandatory Court has already forced the lower house to dissolve under DOHA: An increasing number salary of QR10,000 to be eligible a June ruling that said an elec- of expatriates eligible to apply for a family visa get independent toral law used to elect both for a family visa say the biggest accommodation. chambers - and which resulted hurdle they face is producing a Rents of independent residen- in an Islamist dominated par- municipality-attested copy of tial units normally begin from liament - was unfair. their house rent contract. QR4,500, and have of late been At its first session yester- The above document is hard to going up, so most such expatriates day since going on strike over get, say expatriates, explaining prefer to stay in sublet accom- President Mohammed Mursi’s that a rent contract must first modation in large apartments or decision to expand his powers, be registered with the munici- partitioned villas. the court set January 15 as the pality of the area concerned for “How do we get separate hous- date for the first hearing. it to be attested. ing if our gross monthly pay It will also examine the legiti- And for the registration, the packet is just QR10,000 or even macy of the Islamist-dominated landlord of the rented house QR11,000?,” asks an expatriate assembly that wrote the consti- must approach the municipality who yesterday collected a list of tution that Mursi fast-tracked with ownership documents and, documents to be produced with Paris Saint-Germain’s Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic (third right) has his photo taken by a fan after a to approval at a referendum on top of it, pay at least one per his residency visa application for training session at the Aspire Academy of Sports Excellence, in Doha yesterday. PSG will play a friendly this month. See also page 7 cent of the annual rent as reg- his wife and one child. soccer match against Lekhwiya on Wednesday. istration fee. He said he lived in a small The Ministry of Municipality unit carved out of a big villa in and Urban Planning says a rent Abu Hamour and paid a rent contract that is not registered of QR2,800. “My salary is just with a municipality is not to be QR10,000, so I can hardly afford attested at any cost. “Surely, we to take an independent apart- don’t attest a rent agreement if it ment on rent. That would cost Ministry to ease norms for hiring single women is not registered with a munici- me half my salary,” said the pality,” confirmed a senior minis- expatriate. DOHA: The Ministry of at ensuring their safety and agencies, the minister said the owner of a manpower agency try official. Subletting homes is illegal, Labour has set up a task force betterment. he would soon remove this was heading a committee that “A registered rent agreement is said Al Fuhaid, adding that the to study the job market and The task force, he said, was discrepancy. is part of the ministry and is in a legal document, and only then ministry can initiate legal action recommend measures to ease studying loopholes in the pro- The ministry, he said, had charge of manpower agencies, and can we attest it,” Mohamed Al against violators if there are spe- visa procedures for young sin- cedures for issuing work visas asked manpower agencies to this allowed him to manipulate Fuhaid, assistant legal advisor at cific complaints or suspicions. So gle women. to women and it would give its explore bringing in maids from things to his benefit. the ministry, told The Peninsula the question of municipal attesta- Although procedures to issue recommendations. several newly-opened markets. The minister simply replied yesterday. tion doesn’t arise for such tenants. visas to single foreign women are The minister also hinted that Talking about work visas issued that all manpower agencies An attested rent contract is Such attestation is normally already in place, they could be men working in outlets that cater to companies so that they can hire were registered with the Qatar one of the 11 documents the immi- required for Qatari government simplified on the recommenda- exclusively to women, like lingerie foreign workers, Al Humaidi said Chamber, the representative body gration department demands employees living in rented accom- tions of the above task force. shops, would be replaced as more less than one percent, or about of the private sector, and they had from an expatriate applying for modation so they can claim a The Acting Minister for and more visas are issued to sin- 500 private companies out of appointed the said person as head residency visas for his wife and housing allowance, said Al Fuhaid. Labour and Minister for gle foreign women. about 80,000, were having prob- of the committee. children. Or, one needs an attested rent Social Affairs, H E Nasser When told that Qatari man- lems in getting work visas. He, however, added that the However, due to rising house contract when taking a dispute bin Abdullah Al Humaidi, told power agencies were allowed to A team from the Ministry of labour ministry took decisions rents and a shortage of afford- with a tenant or landlord to local Arabic daily Al Watan in deal with only two recruitment Labour is visiting these compa- that affect manpower agencies able residential units, not many a civic rent dispute resolution an interview yesterday that agencies in the Philippines, but nies to find out their problems after meeting representatives expatriates in middle-income committee. restrictions on hiring young Filipino agencies were free to and solve them immediately. from all manpower agencies. jobs who have the minimum THE PENINSULA single women were aimed deal with all Qatari manpower The daily told the minister that THE PENINSULA Recep, Tayyip and Erdogan Cairo daily Egyptians amass dollars criticises before travelling home DOHA: There is a sudden expatriates in Qatar, accord- surge in demand for dollar ing to sources at the Egyptian Qaradawi bills from Egyptians travel- embassy here. ling home as the Egyptian More and more Egyptians DOHA: Egypt’s famed Arabic pound hit a record low to 6.24 traveling home on vacation have daily Al Ahram has attacked against the greenback yester- been carrying dollar bills with Doha-based eminent Islamic day, making the black market them, with foreign exchange scholar Dr Yusuf Al Qaradawi. active back home where one market sources confirming that Abdula Nasser Salama, Al dollar was fetching close to the demand for dollar in cash Ahram’s editor-in-chief, in his seven pounds. had indeed soared a bit. column on December 29, severely The fall in the pound’s value “Yes, most dollar buyers criticised Dr Al Qaradawi, who was 1.8 percent in a single day today have been Egyptians,” is head of the International yesterday, smashing through a said an official of an exchange Union of Islamic Scholars, and previous low witnessed during house. Dr Mohammed El Baradei, late 2004. According to a Doha-based Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine Erdogan pose with Syrian refugee triplet former head of International “We expect the rate on Egyptian journalist, the pound’s brothers whose names are Recep, Tayyip and Erdogan as they visit a refugee camp near Akcakale border Atomic Energy Agency, and the black market to go up to fall was linked to perceptions crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border, southern Sanliurfa province, yesterday. See also page 6 said they were destabilising the 7.5 or even eight pounds per that Cairo’s talks with the country and implementing for- dollar as the demand for the International Monetary Fund eign agenda. US currency is likely to keep (IMP) for a $4.8bn loan to shore “These two elderly leaders have going up,” said an Egyptian up the economy and support come from abroad with different expatriate. the depreciating currency were agendas. One is calling (refer- The official pound-dollar collapsing. UN chief urges India to protect women ring to El Baradei) for abolition rate hovered at around 6.24 He said the surging rate of of the constitution endorsed by yesterday, while a Qatari riyal the dollar on the black market NEW DELHI: UN Secretary- bring perpetrators to justice”. and 745 arrests in Delhi this year, the public in a recent referen- fetched 1.685 pounds. at home was due to the restric- General Ban Ki-moon has urged The intervention of the UN there has been only one convic- dum without respect for peo- This was the rate on average tions put by the government on the Indian government to take takes the fallout from the inci- tion. The government has said it ple while the other (referring quoted by exchange houses and the amount (in dollar) one can action to protect women after dent to a new level and underlines will bring in fast-track courts to to Al Qaradawi) said he led banks here.