KUWAIT:
Kuwait’s cabinet resigned as expected on Thursday to avoid a grilling by parliament of three ministers, all members of the ruling al Sabah family, amid calls for political and economic reform.
Lawmakers had asked to question the ministers in the latest of a series of challenges by an unusually assertive Arab parliament that have delayed important economic reforms.
Parliament has triggered numerous cabinet resignations or reshuffles through questioning.
“The government was ready to face any questioning except that of Saleh Ashour,” it said. “The prime minister refused to discuss it in order to prevent provoking sectarianism or insulting friendly countries.”
Ashour wanted to discuss Bahrain and has said he was insulted in a discussion show on Bahraini state television for comments he made in support of Bahraini protesters.
Parliamentary sources said on Wednesday they expected the Gulf state’s emir, Sheikh Sabah Ahmad al Sabah, to reappoint the prime minister — who is also his nephew — to form another cabinet.
Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al Sabah is the first Kuwaiti prime minister to agree to be questioned. Shafiq Ghabra, professor of political science at Kuwait University, said regional tensions had only heightened existing problems in Kuwait.
“The Kuwaiti government is not able to continue to function, and a political crisis has been brewing even before the existing revolutions and uprisings in the region.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 01st, 2011.
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