Panel approves ‘anti-terror’ bill

KUWAIT CITY, March 3: The Legal and Legislative Committee Sunday approved the anti-terrorism and money laundering bill and referred it to the Parliament to include it on the agenda during the next session.

Speaking after committee meeting, Rapporteur of the committee MP Yaqoub Al-Sane said the amendments have been made to some articles of the bill. He added the committee has also approved the proposal which was presented by MP Khaled Al-Shulaimi to amend the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development Law which says any amount above KD 50 million needs Parliament approval.

He said the committee also approved a proposal to establish a crisis management and disaster center in addition to approving a proposal to establish a fund to support and encourage students overseas.

He added the committee also looked into a number of requests made by the Public Prosecution to lift the immunity of some MPs. The committee agreed to lift the immunity of one MP and rejected the request to lift the immunity of MPs Nabil Al-Fadhel and Hussein al-Qallaf. Due to lack of quorum the committee decided to postpone the request to lift the immunity on Abdul-Hameed Dashti to next Tuesday.

Evaluate

He said the committee disapproved the proposal submitted by MP Sadoun Hamad Al-Otaibi to evaluate and expropriate the houses in Blocks 5 and 10 in Khaitan.

He added the committee also discussed and made amendments on some bills on the establishment of Kuwait health insurance stock companies and referred them to the concerned committees.

He said the committee decided to make further study on the proposals presented by MPs to amend the electoral constituencies due to their conformity with the last Constitutional Court ruling that there is lack of jurisdiction to consider the distribution of electoral districts.

He added the Committee also approved a proposal to grant exceptional pensions and bonuses for retired military personnel and for firefighters and forwarded the proposals to the concerned committees.

On another issue, the Finance and Economic Committee held a meeting Sunday in the presence Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Muhammad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah and discussed the Public Tenders Law and invited Minister of Finance to attend its meeting on Monday to discuss the loan interests’ issue.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the committee Rapporteur Safa Al-Hashim stated the committee discussed

Continued on Page 44