35 MPs vote for minister's request to submit motion to cmte

The National Assembly on Tuesday referred to the legislative and legal affairs commission the interpellation motion addressed to the Deputy Prime Minister, Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, to file a report in this respect in two weeks, in response to his request. The voting on the request by Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, also the Minister of State for Housing Affairs and Minister of State for Development Affairs, came with 35 MPs in favor, 27 against, with one abstention -- out of the present 63 members of the assembly. The minister based his request on the third article of Provision 135 of the NA Bylaw that genuinely stipulates that the executive to be grilled could request delay for two weeks, or longer, with approval of the majority of the MPs. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad stated the parliament cannot not specify the date for the interpellation if it "is flawed with breaches of the Constitution or the Bylaw," citing provision 135, according to which the parliament should listen to the statements of the executive to be grilled, namely with regard of the date of the motion debate, as well as conclusions of the legislative and legal affairs committee in its report of the grilling, addressed by MP Hussein Al-Gallaf to the former minister of justice, during the fourth regular session of the ninth legislative term. Elaborating, Sheikh Ahmad indicated that the proceedings for filing the motion interpellation, included in the agenda of the session with the aim of setting a date for the debates, were shrouded with explicit violation of the Constitution and the Bylaws, also affirmed by the Constitutional Court in its explanatory resolutions and the texts of the Constitution. Sheikh Ahmad, out of keenness on safeguarding sound parliamentary practices and the Constitution, requested that the motion be submitted to the commission for examination and determining whether it complied with the Constitution and the Bylaws, provided that the committee would forward its report during two weeks, or during a period of time it might desire to specify. The minister, said, with the consent of the parliament, would submit to the commission an explanatory memorandum, backed with Constitutional texts as to interpellation flaws, as endorsed by the Department of Fatwa and Legislation. Two MPs, Adel Al-Saraawi and Marzoug Al-Ghanem, objected to the minister's request to submit the motion to the commission.