The National Assembly.

By B Izzak

KUWAIT: The National Assembly's legal and legislative committee yesterday said a draft law calling to replace all expat employees in government jobs is in line with the constitution and sent it to the concerned committee for further discussion. The bill is part of a series of draft laws proposed by MPs to reduce the number of expats in the country, who form 70 percent of Kuwait's population of 4.8 million. The Assembly is still awaiting the government's opinion on the issue and what the interior minister has described as amendments to the residency law to reduce the number of expats.

Meanwhile, the Assembly will hold a special session next week to discuss several issues including debating a grilling against the finance minister, Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem said yesterday. Opposition MP Riyadh Al-Adasani had filed to grill Finance Minister Barrak Al-Sheetan for the second time in a few weeks over allegations that he proposed unpopular fiscal measures to the government and failed to perform his duties against corruption.

Adasani continued his campaign against the minister yesterday, saying that Sheetan has presented a series of proposals to the government with the aim to raise non-oil revenues at the expense of Kuwaiti citizens. He also accused the minister of not filing adequate documents over a number of major corruption cases, particularly the alleged involvement of senior Kuwaiti personalities in the global scam of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

Local media reported that the public prosecution interrogated the elder son of a former senior politician over alleged links to the Malaysian fund. The suspect had denied allegations that he facilitated the transfer of funds linked to the main suspect in the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund scandal, and expressed his readiness to be interrogated by authorities.

The public prosecution has been actively pursuing a number of major corruption cases that involve hundreds of suspected visa traders, including the case of a Bangladeshi MP detained in Kuwait who is suspected of giving bribes to some MPs, senior government officials and others.