Officials discuss unified lease contract

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti political blocs are currently preoccupied with coming up with legal and political ways out of the recent ruling by the court of cassation against lawmakers and activists who had stormed the parliament seven years ago. According to the court's ruling on July 8, 2018, 13 of the defendants, including MPs Waleed Al-Tabtabaei and Jamaan Al-Harbash, six former MPs including Musallam Al-Barrak and five activists, were sentenced to 42 months in prison. Former speaker of the house Ahmad Al-Saadoun was the first to call for activating article 75 of the constitution concerning a general amnesty.

Saadoun referred the matter to MP Mohammed Al-Mutair, who was acquitted in the same case, and who held a meeting on Thursday with seven other MPs and several activists. During the meeting, they issued a special statement that recommends referring to the 'political leadership' (HH the Amir) to resolve the problem. Riyadh Al-Adasani, one of the MPs attending the meeting, said 24 lawmakers had so far singed a plea requesting a general amnesty as stipulated in article 75 of the constitution, adding that the cases of storming the parliament and the millions in bank deposits were closely related, as the latter was the motive for the former. "The deposits case was shelved due to legal loopholes, but this does not mean acquitting the accused," he underlined. MP Adel Al-Damkhi echoed Adasani, noting that those who stood up were iconic reformists who were now paying the price.

Meanwhile, constitutional expert Mohammed Al-Feyali said the court of cassation's ruling was a criminal penalty that entails cancelling MPs' memberships. He remarked that the seats would not be declared vacant before announcing the cancellation. "Passing a sentence or imprisonment does not mean that the seat is vacant - this has to be decided by the parliament," he explained. Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem has stressed that no urgent sessions would be held during the parliamentary recess and that the first session of the third term will be held in October.

Unified contract

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry's (MoCI) lease department manager Mariam Al-Bahrani met Kuwait Real Estate Brokers Union's board of directors and discussed various topics, including the unified lease contract that is awaiting minister Roudhan's approval, linking e-contracts made at real estate brokers' offices with relevant bodies, updating brokers' information and issuing special IDs for them.

Head of the real estate brokers union Emad Haidar said that the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) is currently working on linking sale and purchase contracts made at any real estate brokerage offices with relevant authorities at MoCI, justice ministry, PACI, Kuwait Municipality and Kuwait Fire Service Directorate (KFSD). Commenting on the unified lease contract form, Haidar said the final form is currently awaiting the minister's approval before printing it and officially distributing it to various offices before the end of the year.

Sabah Al-Ahmad City

Minister of State for Housing Affairs and Minister of State for Services Jenan Boshehri said the project of building an industrial area in Sabah Al-Ahmad City will be allocated to a number of crafts workshops, light industries and warehouses. The minister added that the project's feasibility studies had been completed pending offering it to investors. She added that the 1.23 million-square-meter project will be offered for investment according to the public-private-partnership (PPP) system.

By A Saleh