KUWAIT CITY: Kuwaiti opposition MPs decided on Sunday to delay by one day plans to question the prime minister in parliament over a police crackdown on a public gathering, MP Mussallam al-Barrak said. “Tomorrow (Monday) we will file to question the prime minister over undermining the dignity of people and imposing restrictions on freedoms,” Barrak, spokesman for the opposition Popular Action Bloc, told reporters. He said the delay was necessary to give around 20 MPs supporting the move time to read the text of the request to quiz Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah, a senior member of the Al-Sabah ruling family and a nephew of the emir. The ruler of the Gulf state, meanwhile, held the organisers of the gathering responsible for the police action and warned he will not allow outdoor public gatherings, according to the official KUNA news agency. “What happened was not the mistake of the special forces, which were executing orders to apply the law, but (rather) the result of practices by participants,” Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah told editors of local Kuwaiti dailies. Sheikh Sabah said adequate measures will be taken to stop “irresponsible practices that aim at plunging the country into political disputes.” Twenty MPs agreed on Thursday to support the questioning of the premier, a day after the elite special forces attacked a peaceful political gathering held by the opposition, wounding four MPs and a dozen citizens. The rally was the second in a series of opposition protests against an alleged “government plot” to amend the 1962 constitution, which saw Kuwait becoming the first Arab state in the Gulf to embrace parliamentary democracy. – Agence France
