Opposition MPs announce two grillings against premier

KUWAIT: Opposition MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei hands a grilling request against HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah yesterday to National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem, who refused to accept it. – Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: The National Assembly yesterday rejected an opposition-sponsored amendment stipulating to allow the judiciary to look into the cases of Kuwaitis who had their citizenships revoked by the government. Following a seven-hour debate, the Assembly voted by 36 - including 14 Cabinet members led by the prime minister himself - against 27 to reject the proposed crucial amendment.

Under the current law, the administrative court is not competent to handle citizenship cases because nationality is a sovereign matter. Immediately after the vote, opposition MPs separately announced they would file two grillings against Prime Minister HH Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.

Islamist MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei said he and MPs Mohammad Al-Mutair and Marzouq Al-Khalifa will file to grill the prime minister today, while MPs Riyadh Al-Adasani and Shuaib Al-Muwaizri said they will file another grilling on Sunday. The lawmakers said the two grillings are coordinated by the opposition MPs. Yesterday's events are highly expected to trigger heated confrontations between the government and opposition lawmakers as the entire country awaits a crucial ruling by the constitutional court on May 3 that could prematurely end the short life of the Assembly.

At the start of the debate, the government bluntly said it opposes any interference in the issue of citizenship, with State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah stating that allowing the courts to hear citizenship cases is against the constitution and breaches the concept of sovereignty. Lawmakers expressed contradictory views on the sensitive issue that has for decades been handled only by the government without any challenge. Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem led the debate by saying he opposed the amendment because it will provide legal protection to tens of thousands of suspected fraudsters who obtained their citizenships through forgery.

Courts have thrown out many cases related to citizenship on the basis that they are not competent to look into such sovereign cases, except in a few exceptional cases. Opposition and other lawmakers wanted to amend the nationality law in such a way that no citizenship can be revoked by the government without a final court order. But wider opposition to this amendment forced the lawmakers to reduce the scope of the amendment to allow those who get their citizenships withdrawn to take their cases to court.

MP Khalil Abul said that revoking citizenships for political reasons is 'immoral'. He said that if the nationality is withdrawn because of forgery, the citizenships of all those who committed the crime must be withdrawn as well. Tabtabaei said Kuwait is committed to international obligations to allow the judiciary to hear citizenship cases and if it failed to do this, it will be placed on the blacklist by the United Nations and be subjected to sanctions. He also challenged Sheikh Mohammad to say what he said about the government's opposition at the world human rights body in Geneva.

MP Adel Al-Damkhi said the proposed amendments do not prevent the government from revoking citizenships, but allows those affected by the measure to go to court. MP Abdullah Al-Fahhad said there is a contradiction in the government's attitude. On one side, it forms a committee to review reinstating revoked citizenships, but is rejecting the courts to handle such cases.

MP Yousef Al-Fadhalah strongly opposed the proposed amendments, saying that they pave the way for wider and deeper amendments that would allow people to obtain citizenships through forgery. He said this it is not correct that under the current law, the government can revoke citizenships without a reason.

Adasani said the proposed amendment does not provide any protection to those who forge and the government should not act as the arbitrator and the opponent at the same time. MP Abdulkarim Al-Kandari insisted that sovereignty rests with the people and the government was granted sovereignty through a law which can be changed, especially after the government misused this law. Several other lawmakers backed the amendments and insisted that the changes do not protect or encourage people who fake their documents to obtain citizenship - they only allow those who get their citizenships revoked from seeking legal recourse from the judiciary.

By B Izzak