Lawmaker reiterates call for GCC confederation
MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei has urged leaders of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to turn the council into a confederation. In a tweet, Tabtabaei said that in view of threats and major challenges, GCC leaders have to turn it into a confederation in which each state has its own domestic political system, with joint foreign affairs and defense policies. Tabtabaei also said he would support any consensus candidate for the speakership, be it Shuaib AlMowaizri or Abdullah Al-Roumi. He also noted that he would support any decision taken by the committee formed during the MP Mohammad Al-Mutair’s Diwan meeting.
In addition, Tabtabaei urged the government to immediately issue a general amnesty for all political opinion prisoners, especially “the freedom fighter Musallam AlBarrak”, as he described him, because “he and honest people like him should not be in jail”. Moreover, Tabtabaei stressed that the reappointment of ministers accused of financial or administrative violations will not be accepted and that the parliament would hold some officials at the investment authority accountable for favoring some employees and paying them four times as much as others.
North Zour
The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) is expected to announce the date of bidding for the first phase of the North Al-Zour power plant project. The authority will also appoint an advisor within the next few days to handle distributing shares between investors, the government and citizens. Notably, the Ministry of Electricity and Water announced that the investor had completed the experimental phase of the plant, adding 1,539 megawatts of electricity and 107 million imperial gallons of water.
Work transfer
Acting Director of the Public Authority for Manpower Abdullah Al-Motoutah said the supreme committee for individual disputes had approved 48,408 transfers to work for the private sector since its establishment in Nov 2015 and rejected only 208. Motoutah added that the committee also held 65 meetings during the same period to discuss transfer applications filed at least six months after the issuance of a work permit.
Ambulance bikes
The Ministry of Health’s assistant undersecretary for medical support services Dr Jamal Al-Harbi announced that medical emergency services would soon start using motorbikes as ambulances. Harbi added that such type of ambulance services would be very handy in congested places and that the bikes would be fully equipped with the latest first aid equipment to help paramedics tend to cases much faster, before a vehicular ambulance arrives at the scene.