Fuzai, a lawyer by profession, said he made the proposal because Kuwaiti patients normally wait for a long time before they are examined by public doctors to the extent that sometimes they arrive at medical facilities very early in the morning and even before employees come to work in order to be able to see doctors quickly.
The lawmaker said that expatriates in emergency conditions should be exempted from the proposal.
Medical services are totally free of charge for Kuwaitis but expatriates are obliged to pay an annual health insurance fee of KD 50 per person regardless of age and on top of that pay for many other services like x-rays and other radiology services, hospital stays and others.
In other developments, the National Assembly’s financial and economic affairs committee yesterday approved a draft corporate law that has been in the Assembly for several years because of differences over the law with the previous Assembly.
Minister of Commerce and Industry Anas Al-Saleh said the bill provides better protection for public funds and is a major improvement for economic legislation.
The current corporate law was issued in the early 1960s and underwent a few amendments and was described as outdated and hindered efforts to transform Kuwait into a trade and financial hub.
Meanwhile, the constitutional court yesterday looked into another nine petitions against the amendment of the electoral law and several challenges to election results.
The court decided to postpone the nine challenges until today to issue its ruling. On Sunday, the court looked into another eight challenges among around 56 challenges it has received against the results of election and against the amendment of the electoral constituency law.
The criminal court meanwhile set Feb 5 to issue its ruling against two former opposition MPs and a member of the scrapped Assembly on charges of insulting HH the Amir and undermining his authority.
Khaled Al-Tahous, Falah Al-Sawwagh and Bader Al-Dahoum were accused of making statements at a public gathering on Oct 10 that were deemed to be offensive to the Amir. The men were detained for five days in October before they were released on bail.
The public prosecution meanwhile released lawyer and writer Mohammad Abdulqader Al-Jassem yesterday after interrogating him on charges of undermining Kuwait’s relations with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The accusations were based on an article Jassem wrote on his blog about two months ago and in which he warned the leaders of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates that protests in Kuwait could reach their countries.
Former MP and top opposition figure Musallam Al-Barrak is due to appear in court on Sunday for investigations in a case filed against him for insulting Jordan and the Jordanian monarch and questioning both countries’ relations.
Barrak had been summoned by the public prosecution last week for the same case but he could not appear as he had severe cold. Barrak had insulted Jordan and its king and claimed that the special forces and riot police deployed in demonstrations in Kuwait were ‘Jordanian mercenaries’, which was vehemently denied by the interior ministry.
In a related development, leading opposition figure and former MP Faisal Al-Mislem yesterday called for forming a broad alliance of the opposition groups, saying an alliance is a necessity at this time.
Commenting on Monday’s protests in Sabah Al-Nasser, MP Abdulhameed Dashti expressed amazement at the practices of members of the annulled 2012 Assembly and the statements they make to the press where they condemn atrocities during the Sabah Al-Nasser demonstration although “they were the ones who called for, organized and provoked young people to take part in it”.
