KUWAIT CITY, Sept 12: MP Shuaib Al- Muwaizri changed the date of the special legislative session he proposed from Sept 15 to Sept 22 in order to give his colleagues, who are currently abroad, a chance to sign the proposal upon their return to the country; indicating 12 MPs have signed so far. The lawmaker said the proposed special session is for deliberations on the deterioration of services like health, education and housing; vital issues such as recruitment, corruption and real estate fraud; and Covid-19 measures. He argued that people should not be forced to get vaccinated against Corona by making it a condition for travel.

He asserted the vaccines have yet to be proven safe, so the government should issue vaccination certificates stating that it is fully responsible for any side effects in the future; otherwise, people should be allowed to decide on their own whether to take the vaccine or not, instead of forcing them to get vaccinated. He added the agenda of the session includes the amnesty issue; asserting it is unacceptable that Kuwait reconciles with other countries while refusing to do so with a number of citizens who have been in exile for their tweets or for criticizing corruption. He affirmed the economic issue will be tackled during the special session, stressing the public fund is being stolen every day due to bad management of the fund. He revealed the total value of Kuwait’s assets at Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) is $2 trillion, not $700 billion which the government announced earlier.

MP Osama Al-Shaheen submitted a proposal to allow holding conferences, symposiums and training courses provided the health regulations are strictly implemented. He pointed out that his proposal is in line with recent decisions on the return to normal life. On the other hand, MP Hesham Al-Saleh forwarded queries to Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Economic and Investment Affairs Khalifa Hamada regarding the exorbitant prices of plane tickets. He wants to know the reasons behind the price hike despite the increase in the number of fl ights and destinations at Kuwait International Airport. He inquired why the current prices of plane tickets do not match decisions to lift the entry ban on passengers from many countries and resumption of direct flights with several destinations. He asked about the plan of the government to reduce the prices of plane tickets, why Kuwait Airways Corporation did not adopt a competitive strategy to offer plane tickets at reasonable prices in order to ease the financial burdens of citizens, and steps taken to control the prices of plane tickets to Europe and United States of America considering the flights to and from these destinations resumed at the beginning of September.

MP Hassan Jawhar asked Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Affairs Rana Al-Fares about ‘Sahel’ application, particularly the mechanism for ensuring the privacy of users and protecting their data from hackers. He wants to know if the saved data are stored in Kuwait or outside, steps that will be taken in case data are exposed to hackers, ways to restore damaged or stolen data, institutions managing the application, if Kuwaiti officials are in charge of managing the application, if the application was tested prior to the launching or not, and methods for uncovering and foiling hacking attempts. By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh Arab Times Staff