Speaking to Al-Rai on the condition of anonymity, sources said four MPs had recently met two ministers and complained against at least five other ministers who they believed “deliberately favor certain lawmakers in helping them finalize transactions leaving out others.”
The MPs made it clear to the two ministers that if this approach did not change, “then the cabinet could find itself with little support when it will be time to debate the interpellations,” the sources added.
The sources did not name the complaining lawmakers, nor the ministers they met or the ones they complained about, but pointed out that the two ministers promised to convey their feelings to HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al- Sabah.
Meanwhile, the same sources indicated that a majority in the parliament planned to ask the premier to conduct a “wideranging cabinet reshuffle” at the beginning of the next parliamentary term “that sees changes in at least half of the portfolios.”
(Rai) In other news, rapporteur of the parliament’s health committee Hani Shams said that the panel would reject any proposals which would mean that medical services would be provided to people in separate time bands based on the patients’ nationality.
Reports last week had suggested that the ministry was studying the possibility of allocating the morning period at outpatients clinics for Kuwaiti patients and the afternoon period for expatriates patients.
“The Ministry of Health is required to allow people to be equally entitled to medical attention regardless of their nationality, and that is out of the belief that every person living in Kuwait is entitled to equality and justice especially when it comes to healthcare,” Shams told Al-Qabas.
Separately, Shams told Al- Jarida newspaper that he received information that the Prime Minister, Parliament Speaker Ali Al-Rashid, Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali and head of the parliament’s financial and economic committee Yousuf Al-Zalzalah, agreed during a recent meeting on a mechanism to “drop the interests accrued on the bank loans taken before April 2008,” which would pave the way towards ending the dilemma by sometime next month.
Al-Jarida also spoke to committee member Mohammad Al- Jabri who indicated that the panel was set to officially approve the mechanism during its meeting next Sunday.
