All roads lead to the Abdullah Al-Salem Hall, Tuesday, the scheduled start of the second session of the seventeenth legislative term of the National Assembly, amid challenges and thorny files that will draw the road map for the relationship between the two authorities in the next stage.
At the forefront of the thorny files are the laws that the Chairman of the Finance Committee, MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri, announced that they had been completed and submitted to the Council for a vote, which aim to improve the citizens’ lives, most notably raising the minimum limits for retirement pensions, increasing the good loan from 7 times to 21, and increasing the social allowance and bonus; children allowance to 100 dinars, in addition to increasing the cost of living for everyone to 250 dinars, which according to the data appears to be most of them facing government rejection, in light of the financial situation and the expected budget deficit as a result of fluctuations in oil prices, reports Al-Rai daily.
Among the thorny files as well are the interrogations, as the Council is scheduled to determine, in its opening session, the position on the two interrogations submitted by the two MPs, Dr. Mubarak Al-Tasha and Daoud Marafi, to the Minister of Public Works, Dr. Amani Boqmaz, either by discussing them or postponing them to the next session, at the request of the Minister requests
It is expected that the interrogation period will end during the next stage, coinciding with the end of the consensus between the government and the Council, due to the hot issues — the subject of dispute — as MP Hamdan Al-Azmi announced 3 weeks ago the interrogation of the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Muhammad Al-Aiban, stressing that work is underway to prepare the interrogation document.
From several axes, related to conflicts of interest, misuse of power, and financial and administrative abuses, MP Abdul Karim Al-Kandari recently hinted at submitting an interrogation to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Salem Al-Sabah, in the event that the American ambassador’s papers are approved against the backdrop of the violations and genocidal war carried out by the Zionist entity on the Gaza Strip.
Parliamentary priorities are considered the third thorny issue, after 48 representatives identified 18 priorities. There is agreement between the two authorities in some of them and a large difference in others, including, for example, the political priority of amending the internal regulations of the National Assembly, which faces governmental rejection in most of them, such as publicly voting in the elections for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Council, and not allowing the government to vote in the elections for committees and Council positions.
On the other hand, the government has identified 14 priorities, including the excise tax, which is also facing parliamentary rejection, and all of this would put the relationship between the two authorities on a hot plate.
Members of the National Assembly have received the two invitations for the opening session addressed by National Assembly Speaker Ahmed Al-Sa’adoun, and the special public session scheduled for next Wednesday to discuss Zionist violations, at the request of some members.