Admit bedoons in public schools: Assembly panel
Tabtabaei inquires how Fali entered Kuwait
By B Izzak
The National Assembly committee for bedoons or stateless people yesterday approved a proposal calling to allow children of bedoons who were counted in the 1965 census to join public schools, head of the committee said. MP Nasser Al-Dossari also called on the education minister to admit bedoons who passed the higher secondary examination into Kuwait University.
Dossari called for dealing with bedoon students in a humanitarian way and allow them to complete their university education at Kuwait University in order to be able to join the labor market to replace expatriates. The lawmaker said the committee discussed with the foreign ministry about the issue of coordination with Saudi authorities to allow easy access for bedoons to perform umrah and hajj, minor and major pilgrimage to Makkah. Bedoons have had difficulties in recent years to go to Saudi Arabia for hajj because of visa problems.
Islamist MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei yesterday asked Interior Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah how Shiite cleric Mohammad Al-Fali managed to enter the country although he was deported several years ago. Tabtabaei asked the minister how did Fali manage to enter Kuwait using a fake passport and whether his fingerprints were taken at the airport or not. He asked for the reason if the fingerprints were not taken and if they were taken how he was allowed to enter.
The lawmaker asked if anyone has facilitated the entry of Fali who was deported from Kuwait less than 10 years ago for insulting the Prophet’s (PBUH) companions and sowing sectarian divisions. It was Tabtabaei himself who threatened to grill former prime minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah if Fali was not deported.
The lawmaker asked the minister about the mechanism of security screening on visit visas and why there was no screening on this case. Tabtabaei also asked the minister why Fali was not sent to the public prosecution to interrogate him for the reasons he came back to Kuwait years after he was deported. The lawmaker also asked the minister about the duration Fali spent in Kuwait and in what way he was deported and if his fingerprints were taken this time. He also asked if the ministry has launched an investigation to see if some people helped Fali to enter the country.
MP Yousef Al-Fadhalah called on authorities yesterday to ensure that the procedures of awarding the contract of Al-Zour North power plant were legal. He threatened to open the file of the project if he finds that the procedures were faulty and involved any squandering of public funds.