Meeting late Saturday night at MP Mubarak Al-Waalan’s diwaniya, around 20 lawmakers also decided to meet again on Wednesday to determine the exact date for the grilling of Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah and those who will submit the grilling.
The lawmakers claimed that they already have the support of around 22 MPs who last month signed on a document pledging to grill the two ministers. If the grilling goes ahead as announced, the MPs will have no difficulty filing a no-confidence motion against the minister, which only requires the signatures of 10 MPs. For the motion to pass, they require the support of at least 25 MPs. If approved, it would mean an automatic dismissal of the minister. They also decided to file to grill the interior minister
at a later stage over the same issue.
Tribal and opposition MPs are accusing the two ministers of failure to apply the law against the TV channel, owned and run by Mohammad Al-Juwaihel, who last month gave an interview in which he allegedly insulted tribes.
In another development, 11 MPs plan to meet HH the Amir to request him not to reject a law passed last week calling on the government to write off KD 1.5 billion in interest on consumer and personal loans and also rescheduling the principal of the loans estimated at KD 5.2 billion over at least 10 years. MP Shuwaib Al-Muwaizri said the MPs will request the Amir not to sign a decree rejecting the law.
Under Kuwaiti law, the government can recommend to the Amir to reject laws passed by the National Assembly. The Amir then normally issues a decree to reject such laws and return them to the Assembly. The assembly can override the rejection in the same term by a two-thirds majority vote, or by a simple majority if the voting is delayed until the next term. The government has vowed to reject the debt relief law, saying it breaches the constitution and involves high cost on public funds.
Meanwhile, the Assembly’s legal and legislative committee yesterday approved a proposal calling on the government to build a new international airport to replace the existing one and turning its land for housing purposes. The proposal calls for allocating the necessary budget for the airport. The committee passed another proposal prohibiting MPs from carrying out any transactions in the ministries in person and instead urged them to set up an office that would be entrusted to do the job on behalf of the MP
s.
Also, liberal MP Abdulrahman Al-Anjari asked in a question to the interior minister about reports that a group of bedoons who had taken third country nationalities and were given legal residence permits have now been returned to the bedoon category and their residence permits cancelled. Anjari asked about the reasons for such action and inquired if it was because the passports were found to be fake. He also asked if the ministry has launched an investigation into the matter.