Special panel meets with premier over grilling

KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Marzouk Al-Ghanem said yesterday that the current term of the Assembly is likely to wind up by the middle of Ramadan ahead of the last 10 days of the holy fasting month.  Al-Ghanem said that he will invite lawmakers to hold special sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week and the next to debate and approve the state budget and budgets of other government bodies. The Speaker said the Assembly office has not yet decided on the closing date of the assembly but it is expected to be around the middle of the holy month of Ramadan, which falls around June 10.

The assembly has already started to debate the budgets of state institutions and approved about a dozen of them while rejecting two. The budgets committee said yesterday that the government must provide new budgets to replace the rejected one to allow the assembly debate them again. In the meantime, a special assembly panel formed after the grilling of the prime minister yesterday hosted the premier and State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah to follow up on the two grillings.  Opposition MPs grilled Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah earlier this month over a variety of allegations. The assembly then formed a three-MP panel to follow up on the issues raised during the two grillings.  Rapporteur of the committee MP Rakan Al-Nasef said the panel has laid out a mechanism of operation in order to quickly complete its report.

He said the government plans to form a team to deal with the committee during the summer recess, adding that the government promised to answer the committee questions in writing. The committee also plans to meet with the lawmakers who grilled the prime minister to discuss the government responses with them.

Traffic woes

The Assembly Public Utilities committee yesterday discussed with the government the traffic problem in the country and ways to resolve it. Member of the committee MP Khalil Al-Saleh said that the committee stressed that the government did not provide sufficient funds to the Ministry of Public Works to resolve the traffic problem.

He said the committee is expected to call on the government to have only one company for busses instead of the existing three in a bid to help solve the traffic problems. He said that he plans to submit a draft law calling to change the timing of government offices from 9 am to 5 pm to help reduce the traffic jams.

Islamist MP Mohammad Hayef sent a series of questions to the interior minister about the entry of Shiite cleric Mohammad Al-Fali who was deported from the country several years ago.

Hayef said that it was reported that Fali entered the country using a different name with a different passport apparently issued by Iran. After discovering his identity, Fali was asked to leave the country which he did on Thursday.  Hayef asked who allowed Fali to enter and who issued him a visit visa. He also inquired how Fali managed to enter the country without the security agencies being able to identify him.

By B Izzak