Kuwait minister likely to resign
Social affairs minister was facing new grilling motion over liberal society management
Kuwait’s Minister of Social Affairs and Labour and State Minister for Economic Affairs Hind Al Sabeeh is likely to hand in her resignation to put an end to the saga of her grilling by lawmakers.
Al Sabeeh who was grilled twice this year could face a new motion to question after lawmaker Riyadh Al Adasani said he would file it by tomorrow if the minister did not dissolve the Kuwait Liberal Society, established in December 2017, or at least took action against one of its members who reportedly abused religion.
Al Adasani has repeatedly criticised the society, saying that it failed to respect religion, a charge that has been vehemently rejected by its members and supporters.
Deadline set
In his latest statement, the lawmaker said that he was shocked by the minister’s hesitation to take action against the society and that he was adamant about questioning her.
He added that once he filed the motion, he would not back down even if the minister took action after “the end of the grace period on Wednesday.”
However, according to a report on Monday in Kuwaiti daily Al Seyassah quoting “well-informed sources”, Al Sabeeh will hand in her resignation following Eid Al Fitr, expected on Friday.
“The minister wants to avoid any embarrassment for the government, especially in light of the frequency of the motions to question her and the growing parliamentary dissatisfaction with her performances,” the sources said. “There is a high political cost to keeping her in the government even though she passed all the grilling motions filed against her.”
According to the sources, Al Sabeeh made the decision to resign since the last grilling session in May when she had to face a no-confidence vote generated by MP Saleh Ashoor over allegations of abusing the law to dissolve non-governmental organisations and cooperative societies, failing to enforce necessary policies to restructure Kuwait’s demographics and failing to apply development plans to bolster the national economy.