Former opposition MPs have alleged the grillings are part of an orchestrated plot to dissolve the National Assembly ahead of a scheduled ruling by the constitutional court over the amendment of the electoral law.
Shiite MP Khalil Abdullah bluntly said most of the grillings are not aimed at reforms but a reflection of ongoing struggles between influential people whom he did not name.
Meanwhile, the trial of 70 opposition activists – including 10 former MPs – for storming the Assembly building in Nov 2013 continued yesterday with the cross-examination of witnesses from both sides. Hundreds of angry activists stormed the Assembly on Nov 16, 2011 following a rally outside the building to demand the removal of former prime minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
Top interior ministry officer General Mahmoud Al-Dossari, who was the commander of the police force, denied that any of the accused former MPs instigated demonstrators to assault policemen.
Former deputy Assembly speaker Khaled Al-Sultan said that the outside gates of the Assembly building were open before the activists came, insisting that the activists did not force the gates open.
He also claimed that the case had been deliberately inflated to serve the interests of some highly influential officials, but he did not elaborate. Following a lengthy session, the court set the next hearing for March 18.
Regarding the grillings, it is not a record to have two grillings submitted on the same day as previously three were filed on the same day, but what is unprecedented in the history of Kuwait is that one MP has filed two grillings of two different ministers on the same day.
MP Nawaf Al-Fuzai joined MP Saadoun Hammad in signing the grilling against Oil Minister Hani Hussein and then unilaterally filed a request to grill Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali.
The oil minister’s grilling alleges that Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corp, has deliberately continued investing in a Belgium-based company even after an Israeli company acquired an important stake in the company in 2007.
KPI also conducted through its subsidiary several commercial deals with the Israeli company, the grilling alleged. It also claimed that KPI in Europe, which owns a chain of petrol pumps, has continued to sell liquor and pornographic magazines at its petrol stations, in violation of the Kuwaiti law.
The grilling claims that a number of serious financial and administrative violations have been committed at a number of joint ventures in Vietnam and China and several other places.
It also charged that serious deliberate violations were committed in the multibillion-dollar deal between Kuwait Petrochemicals Industries Co and US’ Dow Chemical which was later scrapped by the government under pressure from MPs.
The unilateral scrapping of the contract cost Kuwait $ 2.16 billion in arbitration. The grilling alleges that the oil minister at the time of the contract was working as an adviser with Dow Chemical.
For the second grilling, Fuzai accused that the finance minister, the Central Bank of Kuwait and a number of Kuwaiti commercial banks were directly responsible for what he described as the bad debt crisis.
He said the minister did not exercise his authorities to stop violations by local banks to lure citizens into taking loans that they were unable to repay.
Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali has remained adamant against proposals by MPs to either write off the whole debt or part of it or even the its interest, saying that there is no debt problem in Kuwait. It was not immediately known when the grillings will be discussed.
