Manama: A Kuwaiti lawmaker has bowed to pressure from colleagues and withdrew a motion to quiz the prime minister.
The move by MP Abaid Al Wasmi was supported by some lawmakers, but met resistance from his bloc and from other MPs who said that the government deserved a grace period to fulfill its promises.
The decision to investigate Prime Minister Shaikh Jaber Al Mubarak was made less than one week after the formation of Kuwait's government and the convening of the newly elected parliament.
MP Abaid Al Wasmi called for a probe into alleged negative attitude toward tribesmen and the double standards in the application of the law on detainees following the storming of Al Watan television and those held in the protests by stateless Bidoons.
Several members of Al Mutair family, to which Al Wasmi belongs, were arrested for their alleged role in smashing into a private television station on the eve of the parliamentary elections on February 2 to express their anger with a candidate who was participating in a programme being aired.
The authorities said that they would apply the law against those found guilty of breaking the law.
Kuwaiti media on Monday reported that Al Wasmi had charged the prime minister of failing to manage the affairs of the state properly.
"With all my respect for you, Your Highness the Prime Minister, you are incapable of running the state and the government you have formed is not even good enough to be a football team," he reportedly said. "Your government is like a spider's web that I can blow up in e breath. I will file the motion to grill the prime minister and the interior minister. Restoring calm at the expense of our dignity is unacceptable," he said.
Other lawmakers from Al Mutair tribe endorsed the motion to question the prime minister. "This is a matter of dignity and the state should make moves about it," MP Muslim Al Barak said.
However, MP Falah Al Sawwagh said that the motion was premature.
"Dr Al Wasmi should have consulted with his brothers in the bloc," he said. "We have held talks with the prime minister and he assured us that all detainees would be released. There is no sense in us holding a meeting with the Emir and the prime minister as a bloc and we hear that the detainees will be allowed to go home. If the bloc endorsed the grilling I am with them," he said, quoted by local Arabic daily Al Rai.
