By A Saleh and Meshaal Al-Enezi

KUWAIT: The government agreed to discuss Kuwaitis' employment and the measures to be taken to nationalize all public sector jobs, as requested by lawmakers, well-informed sources said. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the sources added that the government requested allocating two hours a month to discuss one of the basic issues and leave regular parliament sessions to discuss other laws and bills on the parliamentary committees' agendas.

Further, the sources said Kuwaitizing public sector jobs had been previously discussed in parliament, and that this was why the government requested the two hours to review the executive measures taken by the government to reduce the number of expat employees and keep them at minimal levels, as well as measures taken to increase the number of citizens working in the private sector.

Suspicious remittances

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) yesterday announced closing down a number of moneychangers involved in suspicious remittances and money transfers. MoCI added money laundering and commercial control inspectors toured a number of money exchanges to make sure they fully abide by related laws and regulations.

Shisha ban

The Interior Ministry and Kuwait Municipality agreed on commencing the implementation of the Municipal Council's decision banning shishas indoors, said informed sources, noting that various municipal offices had been notified to start the implementation of the ban by the end of this month. The sources added that coordination is in progress to use police force when needed against violators along with closure and immediate fines.

Nafisi's case

Dr Abdullah Al-Nafisi issued a statement commenting on a court order to summon him for interrogation in a case filed against him for what he says was expressing his opinions. Nafisi stressed that he was as shocked as "others in Kuwait and Islamic countries worldwide" over the case filed by the foreign ministry and the travel ban issued against him. "I was not notified with the case filed on September 12, 2019 before January 5, 2020," he underlined, pointing out that he plans to attend the hearing whenever and wherever the court decides in order to defend himself and demand acquittal.

Court cases

The court of cassation yesterday issued a final sentence seconding a previous verdict issued by the court of appeal fining a local publicity and advertisement company's legal representative KD 5,000, a two-month closure of the company, confiscating all the equipment used in the case and publishing the verdict in two local dailies. Notably, the case was filed against the company's legal representative for violating the patent rights of a local music composer by using music he had composed for a patriotic song in a commercial the company made for a local restaurant.

Meanwhile, the criminal court yesterday sentenced three defendants to seven years in prison and five years in prison for a fourth defendant, in addition to ordering they refund the money they had taken for forging Kuwait citizenship. Separately, the court of cassation yesterday annulled a Public Authority of the Disabled decision in which it declined a disabled citizen's request to receive disability allowances. The court ordered paying the citizen allowances for medium permanent kinetic disability.

Non-Kuwaiti doctors

In a bid to help some categories of medical college graduates, Health Minister Dr Basel Al-Sabah yesterday issued a ministerial decision allowing non-Kuwaiti doctors and other medical profession practitioners to take their training during the first year of appointment. The decision indicates that the exempted graduates include children of Kuwaiti women, Kuwaitis' spouses (who are still married), bedoons (stateless) registered with the central apparatus for illegal residents, children of military martyrs registered with the martyrs bureau, as well as graduates of Kuwait University and the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training from other nationalities who are born in Kuwait and hold valid residency visas.