ABSTRACT
The Council of Ministers has evolved since its formation in 1953 into an efficient administrative body capable of managing the diverse requirements of a rapidly modernizing but relatively traditional society, with all the contradictions that such a mixed system implies. The Council of Ministers enacts and amends all laws, regulations, and royal decrees, and ratifies international agreements and treaties, formulating laws to serve the needs of a sophisticated modern state and regulate such diverse areas as welfare, planning, traffic, commercial transactions, and the growing needs of the provinces, which are not covered in the shari'ah. Once regulations are enacted, the Council sees that they are properly executed. The ministers appointed and promoted individuals up to the level of assistant deputy minister, once strictly the duty of the Council of Ministers, relieving the Council of such routine but time-consuming duties. In addition to its legislative and executive functions, the Council advises the king on important domestic and foreign policy issues.
