KUWAIT: Assembly speaker Marzouk Al-Ghanem yesterday chaired an extended meeting for the assembly office to discuss ways to accelerate the pace of approving legislation that has been slow. Ghanem said that 26 lawmakers representing heads and rapporteurs of various assembly panels debated the issue, adding that the pace of legislation has been blow ambitions. He said the meeting agreed to form a five-member committee that will coordinate between the speaker and heads of various panels who will be encouraged to submit their priority issues.

Ghanem said based on the decision, the assembly will start approving legislation in February and March and if the experiment succeeds, it will be adopted on permanent basis. Head of the financial and economic affairs committee MP Salah Khorshid said the new panel will follow up with committees reports and place them on the assembly agenda for debate.

In the meantime, rapporteur of the legal and legislative committee MP Khalil Abul said the panel has again delayed its final decision on the legality of a grilling filed against the prime minister. Abul said the delay this time came in order for the opinions of the assembly constitutional experts to arrive.

About two months ago, opposition MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri filed to grill the prime minister holding him responsible for the failure of the government to deal with the devastating effects of unprecedented heavy torrential rain.

Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah charged that the grilling violated the constitution and demanded that it be referred to the assembly's legal committee for its opinion. The committee has so far held several meetings with constitutional experts but MP Muwaizri refused to attend its deliberations because he said its work was against the law.

Meanwhile, the assembly public funds protection committee yesterday began debating charges that the public authority for agricultural affairs has distributed state-owned agricultural plots and stables for breeding animals to fake companies. The charges say that such companies were established through forged documents.

B Izzak