"Bringing up the topic of buying citizens’ loans would lead to the dissolution of the Parliament as several government officials had earlier stated that such a topic is the ‘redline’ that should not be transgressed," high-ranking parliamentary officials said.
MP Saadoun Al-Otaibi has said that he is not afraid of a parliamentary dissolution and maintained that the MPs "were ready to go back to the streets to fight for people’s causes.
Al-Shamali had earlier maintained that citizen’s debt problems cannot be solved unless proposed insolvency fund is set up. In that regard, MP Khalid Al-Tahous criticized Al-Shamali’s rejection of any solution to the problem other than through the insolvency fund. "Al-Shamali recently used this issue to defy the Kuwaiti people’s feelings while ignoring other issues in his jurisdiction. He acted, as if he was a minister and that he was the only one responsible for this problem," the MP said.
He added that citizens have become prey for banks, and that many citizens were now threatened with imprisonment because they took loans and have failed to repay. "Stop taking pleasure in hurting citizens. We will not allow this to continue any further, and there is nobody in this country capable of shouldering this responsibility except you," he warned.
Meanwhile, MP Saifi Al-Saifi said that he holds the finance minister responsible for aborting many projects that were meant to serve citizens’ interests. "He (the minister) has been an impediment in achieving any cooperation between both powers," he said, describing Al-Shamali’s comments as "narrow-minded and depressing" to citizens who are in debt.
The MP also said that Al-Shamali’s persistence in resorting to the insolvency fund was the best proof of his stubbornness, according to statement which he recently gave to the local press.
Commenting on the same issue, MP Dhaifallah Buramia said that it was a shame that the government issued contradictory statements concerning citizens’ debts. He added that he would only grant the government a grace period that lasted until the coming parliamentary term to solve the problem. "I’ll start collecting signatures and demand to hold a special session to address the citizens’ debt issue," he maintained.
Meanwhile, MP Marzouq Al-Ghanim criticized the government’s inability to present its development and programs plan on time, adding that both plans should have been presented together on time. The lawmaker maintained that the government was "looking for the crises to escalate" if it did not work toward presenting the two programs in a timely manner. The government usually presents both plans to the National Assembly together, and work program plans are generally based on the criteria presented in development plans.
Al-Ghanim added that the government’s inability to present the programs in a timely manner violated a constitutional clause. He added that the government went back on its own promise after it said that the plans would be delivered on time.
In a related development, officials have revealed that MP Saleh Al-Mulla has excluded the possibility of reviving unity among political blocs in Parliament.
In statements made to the local press, Al-Mulla stated that it was too difficult for all parliamentary blocs to agree on certain issues. However, he maintained that this was not the case with "separate, individual issues" and that different blocs held different opinions about a variety of issues and political situations.
Meanwhile, Al-Mulla announced his intention to work on bridging the gap between the National Action Bloc (NAB) members, adding that he would call for special meetings to be held in order to discuss and agree on a unified stance.
Later, Al-Mulla also predicted that new members would join the NAB. "We are contacting each other regularly and exchanging our points of view. We also meet in and outside the Parliament to discuss various issues," he said, pointing out that the new bloc that would be announced soon was not actually a political party. He added that enough meetings would be held for members before the next parliamentary term begins in order to decide on.
The final list of members so far include MPs Abdulrahman Al-Anjari, Dr.
Aseel Al-Awadhi, Dr. Salwa Al-Jassar, Abdullah Al-Roumi, Adel Al-Sarawi, Marzouq Al-Ghanim and Ali Al-Rashid.
