“An official in the ultra-conservative kingdom said that sword-bearing executioners “are not readily available everywhere and on some occasions, executions were marred by confusion as the executioner was late in showing up at the designated public place”. The unnamed bureaucrat told the daily Al Youm that in the age of easy digital communication, executioners’ lateness was “causing confusion and sparking speculation and rumours through modern technology”, a remark that perhaps hinted at public opposition. A special inter-ministerial committee was examining the possible change to a method that has been used for centuries and which Islamic scholars in Saudi Arabia claim is based on the Koran.………….”

As for beheading being part of the Islamic Shari’a, and the claim of it being in the Quran, I
am not sure about that. I doubt it: there probably is nothing in the
Holy Quran about chopping heads (I haven’t seen anything about it, maybe I  missed something). I suspect they started doing that
because it was the easiest method. We did not have gallows or bullets in
the Middle East those days (to the best of my knowledge). The early
Arabs did not take kindly to the cruel barbaric European methods of burning
people alive or crucifying them or chopping them down with axes. The Gauls (ancestors of the French and Belgians) sometimes put people in wicker baskets and roasted them alive. In
those days, quickly chopping heads was a humane method.

Other countries have brain drains. The Saudis have their own kind of drain: a shortage of executioners who chop heads by the sword every Friday in various cities. Once I tweeted, flippantly, that they should recruit women to do the job. Best to end the death penalty worldwide, starting with Texas.

Cheers
mhg