Opposition, Cabinet, Pro-Govt Mps Set for Major Showdown Speaker Calls for Special Assembly Session to Approve State Budget
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THULQADA 11, 1442 AH MONDAY, JUNE 21, 2021 16 Pages Max 48º Min 29º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18465 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net KRCS opens three wards at Women migrants reduced Jordan battles to save Fever clinic, COVID kits: Tokyo 3 Wardieh Hospital in Beirut 5 to sex slaves in Libya ‘hell’ 11 rare tiny Dead Sea carp 13 2020 shows off Olympic Village Opposition, Cabinet, pro-govt MPs set for major showdown Speaker calls for special Assembly session to approve state budget By B Izzak of 31 MPs, for a meeting late yesterday to dis- essential for citizens. He added it will also block approve the budget, giving the government the cuss the situation regarding the invitation to hold any increase in the budget for the year. Deputy right to spend billions of dinars, and still not be KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq the special sessions. Opposition MPs have been speaker Ahmad Al-Shuhoumi said citizens should able to question ministers?” Al-Ghanem yesterday invited MPs for special refusing to allow sessions to be held in protest not be made to pay for the ongoing political MP Mohammad Al-Mutair said: “We will not sessions to approve the state budget for the against a decision by the house to postpone wrangling. He also warned that HH the Amir and approve the budget for a government that we 2021/2022 fiscal year, but opposition lawmakers grillings against the prime minister until the end HH the Crown Prince are aware of the develop- cannot hold accountable. What if they steal the vowed not to allow the sessions to be convened of 2022. The opposition insists that the decision ments “and those who think they will remain qui- budget?” MP Obaid Al-Wasmi accused the gov- before the prime minister accepts to be grilled, is illegal and not in line with the constitution. et are mistaken”, without elaborating. ernment and its supporters of misleading the setting the stage for a major showdown. Opposition MPs have resorted to sitting in MP Hamad Al-Harashani launched a scathing public, adding that preventing the session aims at Ghanem said he received a motion by 15 MPs, seats reserved for Cabinet ministers, prompting attack on opposition lawmakers, accusing them not allowing the government to control a budget all of them pro-government, requesting special the ministers to boycott the sessions and forcing of plotting against the regime and the constitu- without accountability. sessions to debate and approve the state budget, the speaker to call off those sessions. The tion. But a number of opposition MPs insisted Frequent rows between the Cabinet and adding that he set the sessions for tomorrow and Assembly has effectively held only a handful of they will not allow the session to take place Assembly have led to successive government Wednesday. Opposition MPs immediately sessions since its election in December due to unless the prime minister is grilled, and refuted reshuffles and dissolutions of parliament over responded by rejecting the invitation, insisting lingering disputes between the government - claims by pro-government MPs that not approv- the decades, hampering investment and reforms they will not allow any sessions to be convened backed by the speaker and around 16 MPs - and ing the budget will block spending. in the state. Dissolution of the Assembly could unless HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al- the opposition bloc. MP Abdulkarim Al-Kandari recalled previous also be difficult, as according to the Kuwaiti Khaled Al-Sabah accepts to be grilled. Ghanem warned yesterday that failure to statements by the government that new jobs and constitution, parliament must approve the state Leading opposition lawmaker Shuaib Al- approve the budget will block new jobs and wages will not be affected by not approving the budget for the current term to end before the Muwaizri invited the opposition bloc, consisting cause a delay in housing projects, which are very budget. MP Saud Al-Mutairi asked: “How can we summer break. News in brief China gives Emirates to fly from India again billionth jab, DUBAI: Aviation giant Emirates said yesterday it will resume flights from India from next week, Brazil reels after Dubai lifted a ban imposed when coron- avirus cases spiked. The UAE suspended all BEIJING: China yesterday announced it had admin- flights from India - including for transit passen- istered its one-billionth shot in the world’s biggest gers - in April in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus inoculation drive as Brazil’s death toll the novel coronavirus. “We will resume carrying from the pandemic passed 500,000. The global passengers from South Africa, Nigeria and death toll from COVID-19 is now more than 3.8 mil- India... from June 23,” Emirates said. — AFP lion and many nations are still battling outbreaks, but vaccine drives in some countries are allowing activi- ties that were unthinkable a few months ago. Lanka troops ‘humiliate’ Muslims China’s vaccine milestone comes after the number of shots administered globally passed 2.5 billion on Friday, COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s military launched an according to an AFP count from official sources. investigation yesterday after social media posts But the Asian giant’s vaccination efforts initially got RIO DE JANEIRO: A protestor secures a Brazilian flag next to roses placed by an NGO on Copacabana beach showed armed soldiers forcing Muslim civilians off to a slow start after a successful fight against the in memory of Brazil’s half a million COVID-19 victims yesterday. — AFP to raise their hands in the air while kneeling on Continued on Page 2 a road in the town of Eravur as a punishment for flouting lockdown rules. Local residents said they considered the order to be degrading Clutching a bag of clothes as she and humiliating, while officials acknowledged Indians throng shopped with her new husband at that troops had no power to mete out such Delhi’s busy Select City Walk mall, punishments. — AFP Surili Gupta said she was “fed up markets after being cooped up inside”. “I needed this break, for how long you can Rocket targets Iraq base COVID surge remain locked up?” the 26-year-old sales executive told AFP as she waited BAGHDAD: A rocket yesterday targeted an NEW DELHI: A few weeks ago, for a table at the mall’s packed food Iraqi airbase hosting American troops, a security New Delhi’s crematoriums were oper- hall. “The coronavirus is not going any source told AFP, the latest in a series of attacks ating around the clock dealing with time soon, so one has to learn to live the US blames on Iran-linked militias. The COVID-19 victims. Now the Indian with it. I am sure with the vaccinations assault on the Ain Al-Assad base came as pro- capital’s shopping malls and markets and all, we will be fine.” Tehran groups hailed the election of ultracon- are buzzing again. But doctors are Behind her, a big weekend crowd servative cleric Ebrahim Raisi as the new Iranian worried that India is letting its guard chatted and laughed over Indian president, with some saying it reflected the “fail- down again, just like in January and dosas and Chinese noodles, paying ure” of America’s “pawns” in the region. — AFP February before a devastating coron- scant regard to public announcements avirus surge that led to a near-col- reminding them about social NEW DELHI: People throng Sarojini Nagar market for shopping after authorities lapse of the healthcare system. Continued on Page 2 eased a lockdown on Saturday. — AFP Saudi intercepts 10 drones RIYADH: Saudi air defenses on Saturday inter- conservatism. cepted and destroyed 10 drones fired at the Clerical power But the role of religion faces the kingdom by Houthi rebels in Yemen, state media biggest reset in modern times as reported. The official Saudi Press Agency Crown Prince Mohammed bin reported that seven of the drones targeted wanes in Saudi Salman, spurred by the need to regions in southern Saudi Arabia. Three targeted diversify the oil-reliant economy, the Khamis Mushait region, also in the south and religious reset pursues a liberalization drive. home to military installations, it said. — AFP Chipping away at a key pillar of its RIYADH: Muezzins issuing high- Islamic identity, the government last decibel calls to prayer have long been month ordered that mosque loud- 5 dead in Belgium school collapse part of Saudi identity, but a crack- speakers limit their volume to one- down on mosque loudspeakers is third of their maximum capacity and ANTWERP: Five building workers were con- among contentious reforms seeking to not broadcast full sermons, citing firmed dead Saturday a day after a school con- shake off the kingdom’s austere concerns over noise pollution. struction site partially collapsed in the Belgian image. Saudi Arabia, home to the holi- In a country home to tens of thou- city of Antwerp. The last two bodies were pulled est Muslim sites, has long been asso- sands of mosques, the move triggered out the rubble on Saturday afternoon, Antwerp’s ciated with a rigid strain of Islam an online backlash with the hashtag fire department said, meaning that all the miss- known as Wahhabism that inspired “We demand the return of mosque ing victims were now accounted for. — AFP generations of global extremists and speakers” gaining traction. JEDDAH: In this file photo taken on April 28, 2020, Imam Mohammed, muezzin of left the oil-rich kingdom steeped in Continued on Page 2 the Jaffali Mosque, calls for prayer. — AFP 2 Established 1961 Monday, June 21, 2021 Local Amir receives top state officials at Bayan Palace KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al- Sabah meets His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.