10 MPs demand debating law on naturalization

KUWAIT: Ten lawmakers yesterday submitted a petition calling on the national assembly to debate and approve a law that sets out the number of people who can be naturalized this year. The draft law stipulating granting Kuwaiti citizenship to up to 4,000 people, a majority of them stateless people or Bedouns, was studied and approved by the national assembly interior and defense committee before the summer recess of the assembly.

The lawmakers demanded that the bill be debated in the first or the second session of the new term of the assembly which opens on October 24. The national assembly has every year passed similar legislation but the government refrained from implementing them and naturalized only a few hundreds over the past several years.

MPs want the government to use the law in full as a means of resolving the decades-old problem of the 110,000 Bedouns who claim the right to Kuwaiti citizenship while the government says many of them do not fulfill the required conditions. The Bedouns say that their forefathers were entitled to citizenship but did

not get it because of wrong procedures while the government says that Bedouns or their forefathers came to Kuwait from neighboring countries and destroyed their identification documents to avail of the generous services and benefits associated with the Kuwaiti nationality.

Audit reports Meanwhile, MP Abdullah Al-Roumi asked State Minister for Cabinet Affairs and acting information minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah if the council of ministers receives and studies reports by the State Audit Bureau. He asked if the council of ministers discusses those reports coming from the Audit Bureau tackling a variety of financial and administrative issues besides probes and investigations.

The lawmaker asked about the measures the council of ministers takes toward such reports and if it assigns certain bodies or departments to study them and recommend actions. He also asked if the council follows up on such assignments.

Roumi demanded a copy of the latest decision taken by the council of ministers on a report from the Audit Bureau or a copy of the response of a government body that was assigned to study such reports. The State Audit Bureau is regularly asked by the National Assembly and the government to prepare detailed reports on financial and administrative controversies besides reviewing mega government contracts to ensure they were in line with Kuwaiti laws and did not involve violations.