Number of copies....... I called for this file on my return from sick leave to see what stage we had reached in the attempt to eliminate the offending clause in the draft Traffic Law which states that "if the offender is a Moslem . the provisions of Islamic law shall apply". As I am putting up a separate comprehensive paper for a policy decision on jurisdictional questions generally in Qatar, I will restrict my comments on this file to the specific matters which it raises. Number of copies of enclosures... 2. It is a pity that the Political Resident could not have a legal adviser with him when he discussed this legal question with Dr. Kamel, for Dr. Kamel is as smooth and plausible a lawyer as ever came out of Levant and it really is not fair to have to discuss legal. ........ matters with him without any legal assistance. Dr. :) Kamel's suggestion that offences under Article 69. (traffic accidents causing death or bodily harm) should be tried in the Traffic Court and not in the Sharia Court concedes nothing. The draft Law constituting the Traffic Court already gives that Court and that Court alone, the power to administer the Traffic law. Dr. Kamel sold the P.R. a dummy pass. 3. Furthermore, a modern Trailic Court could not, in practice, administer the Sharia law; only a Qadis Court could do that. To take one example: the rules of evidence are entirely different; in the Sharia Court no photographs are allowed, no X-rays no plans or sketches. Thus if a modern judge were trying a traffic case involving Pakistani Muslims and non-Muslims he would be faced with the impossible task of reaching a decision based on both admissible and inadmissible evidence. It would be like trying to conduct a choir composed of the Beatles and the Wienerk haben. Moreover the punishments are also widely different. In Saudi Arabia, blood money for unintentional killing is 16,000 riyals flat, and relatives have to help to pay. How can such a law be administered in a modern Court? It makes a nonsense of the provisions of the Traffic Law which provide for a maximum fine of Rs. 3,000 or 3 years imprisonment for causing death and Rs. 1,000 or 1 years imprisonment for causing bodily harm. In any case where is the judge to be found who is qualified in modern law and also the Sharia law? He does not exist. 4. In Dahran the Qadis Court administers only one system of law, the Sharia law. As there were no motor cars in the days of the Prophet, God Bless him, the present Government of Saudi Arabia has promulgated some "Regulations" dealing with traffic. The Quadi decides questions of fact and the Emir decides the punishment to be imposed. The Aramco people, however, have an arrangement with the Emir that iſ the infringe ment is likely to involve a heavy punishment under the Sharia law, they will be allowed to fly out the offender. If this is how the Sharia law works when administered in a Sharia Court without the complication of modern legal concepts, how much more impracticable OI it would be if an attempt were made to administer it pari passur with modern law in a modern court. der 15. There is
