KUWAIT: The parliamentary legislative committee yesterday passed two government projects and a parliamentary proposal about contesting the cassation verdicts and a general pardon since 2011. In this regard, committee rapporteur MP Al-Humaidi Al-Subaei said the committee passed a government bill allowing contests to cassation verdicts made by the criminal court and extending the grace period for filing a contest to 40 days. Meanwhile, MP Saleh Ashour criticized the work of a committee entrusted with studying citizenships withdrawn from 1991 to 2017, noting that limiting cases to this period is a form of discrimination. Ashour urged the committee to reconsider the period in order to achieve justice and equality. He also urged the committee's chairman, former MP Ali Al-Rashed, to expand the period and study all cases of people who feel their citizenships were unlawfully withdrawn.

Insurance bill

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has finished preparing the semi-final draft of a bill on regulating the insurance sector, said informed sources, noting that the fatwa and legislation department had also studied the bill, which is expected to be passed soon once the minster submits it to the Cabinet pending submission to the parliament for voting. The bill includes 10 chapters and 69 articles including conditioning that all local insurance companies be fully owned by citizens, have a minimum capital of KD 15 million for companies handling life insurance and KD 5 million for companies handling general insurance.

Investigation

Minister of Public Works Abdul Rahman Al-Mutawa said the committee formed to investigate the recent flooding will finish its work next week and report its recommendations to him. "We will never tolerate any sloppiness and will refer those responsible to the public prosecution," he underlined. Meanwhile, well-informed sources at the Ministry of Public Works said that the advisors' department had finished naming the international consultants to be hired to design the airplane hangar project at the new airport building. The sources said 10 international contractors had qualified to execute the project at a total cost of KD 1.3 billion.

Financial reserve

The Cabinet is currently considering a proposal by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) to dedicate a KD 1.5 billion financial reserve for its use as a barrier to reduce securities risk, said informed sources, noting that the government will also consult the finance ministry and the Audit Bureau because the sum would be funded from the state's general reserves.

By A Saleh