Calls for general amnesty for sentenced former MPs

KUWAIT: Well-informed sources said that lawmakers intend to give the new Prime Minister HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah a four-month grace period to work on some unfinished issues, after which they will start filing grilling motions against non-cooperating ministers or the premoer himself. "This is the last parliamentary term before the parliament concludes its tenure in June and some MPs plan to utilize this period to make more electoral gains," the sources said.

The sources added 10 MPs, including Mohammed Al-Mutair, Shuaib Al-Muwaizri, Abdul Kareem Al-Kandari, Abdul Wahab Al-Babtain and Thamer Suwait, will demand two basic things from the PM to avoid a political confrontation with him. "The first will be setting a clearly-defined plan to fight corruption, hold corrupt public servants legally accountable, refer financial suspicions to the public prosecution and respond to the State Audit Bureau report with documents and without any delay," the sources explained, adding that the second condition will be for the government to approve issuing a general amnesty and cancel the sentences passed against former MPs involved in breaking into the parliament, some of whom are still abroad.

"Without accepting these two conditions, political confrontations with the new PM may continue in the current term," the sources underlined. However, a majority of lawmakers expect more cooperation with the current PM because the reasons for confrontation with the previous premier are over after he was replaced. This majority hopes to proceed with laws agreed upon by the parliamentary priorities committee and use them as a roadmap until the end of this term.

Suspect released
The criminal court yesterday released a ruling family member who had been indicted for verbally abusing traffic department police officer Lt Col Saleh Al-Rashed after the latter dropped charges against him.

2,000 citizens resigned

Recent Ministry of Education (MoE) statistics showed 2,000 citizens had resigned from MoE and the ministry of higher education in the period of 2016-2019. Responding to a parliamentary inquiry by MP Khalil Al-Saleh, MoE explained that several reasons were behind the resignations including personal ones, absence, disciplinary dismissal or to execute a court order. Separately, the private education directorate set a timetable for the first term exams in Arabic and model private schools for grades 5-9, said informed sources, noting that the exams will be held in the period of Dec 15-23. The sources added that all concerned schools have been notified of the exam timetable and instructed to distribute them to students, adding an extra 30 minutes for learners with special needs.

Retinopathy treatment

Ophthalmologists at Farwaniya Hospital yesterday met and discussed the latest treatment for retinopathy - an eye injection - which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration last month and will be available in Kuwait soon. "The special thing about this injection is that it is given to patients every three months instead of the current ones given every month," they said.

By A Saleh