Assembly panel says expats still a majority in judiciary
Lawmakers amend law for the disabled, submit article 16 replacement
KUWAIT: The National Assembly’s budgets committee said yesterday that expatriates are still a majority in senior judiciary jobs and called on the government to employ more citizens in such key professions. The committee said the ministry of justice has so far failed to achieve the required target in replacing expatriates with Kuwaitis in top judicial positions. The committee said the ministry should appoint more Kuwaitis, especially in jobs like judges, advisors, prosecutors, district attorneys and others.
Member of the Assembly’s manpower development committee MP Mohammad Al-Dallal said yesterday that the Civil Service Commission has submitted a plan to appoint more Kuwaitis to replace expatriates in government jobs. He said the plan looks good, but the commission explained to the committee the difficulties of replacing expatriates in the ministries of health and education.
The committee has been established by the Assembly to accelerate plans to appoint more Kuwaitis in government jobs replacing expatriates, and create an environment to encourage Kuwaiti graduates to seek jobs in the private sector. Committee officials have repeatedly complained that replacement policies being adopted by the government are not sufficient and called for better policies to find jobs for citizens.
Meanwhile, the Assembly committee for the handicapped yesterday introduced a number of changes to the law governing disabled people. Dallal said the law stipulates to provide services extended under the legislation to handicapped bedoons who are children of Kuwaiti women. The law grants those with serious disability two people to look after them, besides financial aid provided to their relatives. Dallal said members of the panel took care so that the amendments introduced to the law are acceptable to the government, adding that he believes the report on the amendments will be submitted to the Assembly soon.
Deputy Speaker MP Issa Al-Kandari meanwhile submitted a draft law suggesting a replacement for
article 16 of the Assembly’s charter, which was declared unconstitutional and scrapped by the constitutional court in December. Under the new amendment, the Assembly must declare without voting a parliamentary seat vacant when a lawmaker receives a final jail term for serious crimes. Under the previous article, the Assembly had the right to vote on whether to keep the membership even after a lawmaker received a final jail term.