Kuwaiti MPs trade barbs in heated session

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But the government and its supporters narrowly approved a request by the financial and economic committee to postpone its report on the consumer loans issue for one month. Thirty-three MPs supported the request while 31 opposed it. Supporters of the delay said that the Assembly cannot take any decision on the controversial issue without detailed figures about the size of the problem and the expected cost on public funds.

Opponents of the delay however accused the financial committee of collaborating with the government to purposely postpone resolving the problem that has seriously affected thousands of Kuwaiti families. According to official figures, the total amount of consumer and personal loans is KD. 6.7 billion, including around KD 1.6 billion of interest, which many MPs want the government to scrap.

During the session, the Assembly voted to halt the work of a special committee investigating alleged irregularities at the calcined coke factory which was awarded to a private company by Kuwait Petroleum Corp several years ago. The issue was raised when MP Adel Al-Saraawi, a member of the committee, protested that the chairman of the panel MP Saadoun Hammad has been making incorrect statements about the work of the committee.

He also protested that Hammad had leaked the report of the committee before it was studied and approved by the committee and that names of several people were mentioned as suspects. Saraawi and Hammad traded strong words and Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi had to interfere and caution Hammad for refusing to abide by law and order regulations. The Assembly then decided to ask the Audit Bureau to examine the outcome of the committee’s report and prepare a final report to the Assembly within three months. MP Rola Dashti complained that her name was used in the report without any evidence.

Intensity of the arguments rose considerably when the Assembly began to debate requests by the public prosecution to lift the immunity of six MPs to be able to stand trial over several charges. In one of those exchanges, Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber told MP Tahous to "shut up" because he interrupted him while talking. Tahous responded by saying "I will show you your real size".

Tahous said he was badly treated while in detention at the state security just before the May general elections. MP Dhaifallah Buramia also spoke how he was mistreated by state security officers when he was arrested at the same time. The interior minister strongly defended the state security agency. Following the vote, the Assembly rejected to lift the immunity of Buramia and Tahous but agreed to lift the immunity of MPs Mohammad Hayef, Saadoun Hammad, Marzouk Al-Ghanem and Khaled Al-Sultan.

During the debate to lift the immunity, a number of MPs called for a swift end to alleged disputes between members of the ruling family, with some of them warning such disputes could be catastrophic to Kuwait. "Disputes within the ruling family could be destructive to Kuwait," liberal MP Abdullah Al-Rumi said in the National Assembly. "Senior members of the family must move to safeguard the family and the country," he said. "You must put an end to these disputes that are impacting parliament and the whole country." "For the sake of Kuwait’s interests, I spoke about the ruling family dispute that is destructive to Kuwait," said Sultan. "Unless this issue is settled, there will be no stability in Kuwait," he said.

Meanwhile, MP Musallam Al-Barrak said yesterday that he will file a request to grill the interior minister today accusing him of misleading the Assembly during an earlier grilling in June. Barrak had repeatedly called for the resignation of the interior minister and warned that if the minister remains in office until Nov 17, he will file to quiz him. It will be the second grilling this week following Sunday’s grilling against the prime minister by MP Faisal Al-Mislem. Also, MP Mubarak Al-Waalan is expected to file to quiz Minister of Public Works and Municipality Fadhel Safar either today or tomorrow.

 

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