PM, speaker lead Fadhl funeral

KUWAIT: HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah and National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem led the funeral of late MP Nabil Al-Fadhl, who died on Tuesday. MPs, ministers and a large number of people took part in the funeral at Sulaibkhat cemetery, where Fadhl’s body was laid to rest.

Sheikh Jaber paid warm tributes to Fadhl, saying he was one of the best politicians to provide good advice to the government. Ghanem said Fadhl was an honest and dedicated worker serving the interests of the country. Many MPs, ministers and dignitaries also mourned the sudden death of Fadhl.

Fadhl, 66, died on his seat on Tuesday minutes after calling on his colleagues to entirely focus on serious parliamentary work during sessions. During his brief political career, Fadhl was a strong critic of Islamist groups and at one point called for declaring some of them as terrorist groups. He repeatedly blasted opposition groups, especially the Popular Action Movement and the Muslim Brotherhood.

In another development, the appeals court yesterday suspended the implementation of a one-year jail term against former Shiite MP and lawyer Khaled Al-Shatti until the court reviews the case. The lower court this week handed Shatti the jail term after convicting him of undermining a religious sect - Sunnis - in comments on Twitter. A lawyer by profession, Shatti was elected to the Dec 2012 Assembly, which was scrapped a few months later by the constitutional court. He failed in a bid for re-election.

MP Ahmad Al-Azemi meanwhile strongly rejected proposals to cut government subsidies to the agricultural sector and to stop financing people who accompany patients sent by the state abroad for treatment. The lawmaker said that the government should find other means to cut spending and boost non-oil revenues in the face of a sharp fall in oil prices. The new proposals also included calls for the government to completely lift subsidies on petrol within the next few months.

MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji also lashed out at the government’s plans to lift subsidies on fuel and electricity without stopping squandering of public funds like the latest government decision to allocate KD 600 million for the Kuwait Airways budget. The lawmaker insisted that there should be no increase in prices of services and commodities before the government finds ways to curb squandering of public funds.