Assembly panel forms team on cadet death

Saleh Ashour and Hind Al-Sabeeh

KUWAIT: MP Saleh Ashour warned yesterday that he will file to grill Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Al-Sabeeh if she does not answer a question on dissolving a Shiite charity society earlier this year. Ashour said in a statement that he had grilled the minister in May this year for dissolving the society over alleged financial irregularities and claimed during the debate of the grilling that three ministries; the Foreign, Interior and Awqaf in addition to the central bank had made complaints against the society called Al-Theqalain which Ashour chaired.

He added that he asked the ministries about the complaints and they said they had already sent it to the Social Affairs Ministry. The lawmaker said that he had asked Sabeeh to provide him with details of those complaints and she refused because the issue was under legal investigation. The lawmaker said that Sabeeh is obliged under the law and the constitution to answer his questions but she has declined.

Ashour said that he is not interested in grillings but if he does not get the answers he had demanded he plans to either grill all the four ministers separately or grill Sabeeh for being directly responsible. He gave the minister an ultimatum to provide the information he had demanded or face a fresh grilling which is expected to be submitted at the start of the new term next month.

In the meantime, the National Assembly Human Rights Panel formed a two-member team comprising MPs Mohammad Hayef and Thamer Al-Suwait to follow up with the death of two cadets at the military academy. A member of the panel MP Adel Al-Damkhi said the committee discussed during its meeting a complaint filed by the father of one of the deceased cadets and the issue will be investigated from a humanitarian point of view.

Opposition MP Abdullah Fahhad yesterday strongly criticized Minister of Public Works Hussam Al-Roumi for allegedly trying to cancel major contracts illegally thus opening the way for contractors to demand massive compensations. The lawmaker claimed that if the minister is allowed to cancel the contracts, it will cost state coffers around KD 100 million, adding that the cancellation will delay a number of vital projects in various parts of the country.

By B Izzak