KUWAIT CITY, March 31: The National Assembly on Tuesday approved the request of HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled to postpone deliberations on the grilling motions filed against him until the end of the second round of the current legislative term. The grilling motion that MPs Thamer Al-Suwait, Khalid Al- Otaibi and Badr Al-Dahoum filed against HH the Prime Minister was removed from the agenda due to the absence of these MPs. MPs Muhammad Al-Mutair, Badr Al Dahoum and Hamdan Al-Azmi also filed a grilling motion against the premier.

Al-Azmi attended the session, so Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid requested for postponement of the grilling. Al-Azmi then asked about the reasons behind the premier’s request to postpone the grilling; indicating the latter accused him of involvement in issues concerning health, education and others. He said the premier has the right to request for postponement of the grilling but only for two weeks, not until the next round of this parliamentary term.

Addressing the premier, Al- Azmi asserted: “You have been a minister and prime minister since 2006 and now you are talking about important issues like education, health and housing. What have you been doing all this time?” Meanwhile, constitutional expert Professor Mohammad Al-Muqatei explained that postponing the grilling motions until the next round of the current parliamentary term is a violation of Article 135 of the Constitution which states: “Postponement must be requested for each grilling motion.” He added that postponement must be for one month maximum and if the requested postponement is for more than one month, it must be done through public voting during which a special majority is achieved. In a press statement after the session, Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim disclosed the first voting on the premier’s request resulted in the approval of 29 attendees while five rejected it. Then, the Secretariat General of the Assembly informed that this voting is wrong; hence, the second voting took place resulting in the approval of 33 attendees and only one rejected.

Al Ghanim said he will clarify why the voting was not done by calling the names in public in the next session. On the other hand, the Assembly approved the request of several MPs to cancel the session slated for Wednesday; so Al- Ghanim announced that the next session will be held on April 13, 2021. Moreover, MP Musaed Al- Ardi submitted a grilling motion against HH the Prime Minister on the deliberate disruption of the Assembly’s work. MPs Ahmed Mutei Al-Azmi and Soud Bu Sleeb submitted a grilling motion against Minister of Health Dr Basel Al-Sabah on the failure of his ministry to deal with the coronavirus crisis, administrative and financial corruption, and the ministry’s unwillingness to cooperate with the legislative authority. Bu Sleeb pointed out that if HH the Prime Minister managed to protect himself against grilling motions and left the ministers as targets, then the ministers will be grilled one by one. He said the health minister recruited doctors and nurses from Pakistan and Cuba, but it was discovered later that the doctors and nurses from Cuba do not speak English and some of them are infected with coronavirus. In another development, MP Osama Al-Shaheen stated that former MP Badr Al-Dahoum is considered the most expensive lawmaker not only in the history of Kuwait but also in the world. He pointed out that the cost of cancelling the parliamentary membership of Al-Dahoum reached KD 1.4 billion -- almost KD370 million for postponing loan installments, KD500 million for supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and KD600 million for the frontline workers’ reward.

By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh Arab Times Staff