KUWAIT CITY, March 16: Ten MPs on Tuesday filed a no-confidence motion against Kuwaiti Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Sabah, accusing him of putting the Gulf state’s national unity at risk by not applying media laws.

The motion was filed following a six-hour grilling by opposition MP Ali Al-Deqbasi. Voting on the motion will take place on March 25.

Proponents of the motion — mostly tribal lawmakers — include Faisal Al-Muslim, Khaled Al-Tahous, Jamaan Al-Harbash, Shuaib Al-Muwaizri, Falah Al-Sawagh, Daifallah Buramiya, Mubarak Al-Waalan, Salem Al-Nemlan, Mubarak Al-Khurainij and Ahmad Al-Sadoun.

During the grilling, Al-Deqbasi affirmed the procedure aims to bolster national unity, protect freedoms, and preserve national traditions and constitutional practices.  He also claimed that he has obtained information from reliable sources about foreign parties funding a number of local channels to support certain goals, but he refrained from sharing this information.

To pass, it requires a simple majority of the 49 elected MPs and this would mean an automatic dismissal of the minister from office. The 16 cabinet ministers, who are ex-officio members of the chamber, are banned from taking part in such votes.

Deqbasi charged that certain newspapers and private television channels have been “launching a campaign targeting Kuwait’s national unity and its constitutional parliamentary system,” while the minister remained silent.

“Kuwait was subjected to a media campaign more dangerous than terrorism ... The campaign was launched by suspect newspapers and TV channels and targeted national unity and the parliamentary system,” Deqbasi said.
The grilling was triggered by a television show aired in December deemed offensive to the country’s bedouin tribes, who constitute half of the citizen population of 1.1 million.
The programme sparked widespread protests by tribesmen and activists, although Sheikh Ahmad ordered the channel to close.

The channel’s owner, Mohammad Al-Juwaihel, who presented the programme, was later briefly detained and is facing trial.
Over the past three years, parliament has passed a press and publication law as well as broadcasting legislation.

Deqbasi, a member of the Popular Action Bloc, alleged that the minister deliberately failed to apply articles of the law that curb provocative programmes in the media, thereby undermining the country’s national interests.
Sheikh Ahmad, who is also oil minister, categorically denied the allegations, insisting that he had taken all necessary measures to apply the law.
He said the information ministry has filed 162 cases against publications and 47 cases against television channels to the public prosecutor’s office since the start of 2007.
But the minister acknowledged that a number of loopholes exist in the two laws and said the ministry has prepared bills to amend them.
Sheikh Ahmad, a senior member of the Al-Sabah ruling family, was appointed to the cabinet as oil minister in February 2009 and was also given the information portfolio following a general election last May.

Analyst Ali Al-Baghli said the motion was unlikely to be passed against Sheikh Ahmad.
“The questioning is weak, and the minister has resolved all the issues in it ... the no-confidence motion is not expected to draw enough votes,” said Baghli, a former oil minister.
Political parties are banned in Kuwait, so parliament is made up of individuals who form loose blocs. Any MP has the right to question ministers, but it takes 10 lawmakers to file a request for a no-confidence vote and a majority of the elected members of the 50-seat chamber to vote a minister out of office.
Opec’s fourth largest producer has been rocked by political instability in recent years amid sharp differences between the government and parliament.
In December, Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and Interior Minister Sheikh Jaber Khaled Al-Sabah, both members of the ruling family, survived two no-confidence votes after they were grilled.
Kuwait’s political disputes have deepened since Sheikh Nasser, a nephew of the ruler, was appointed premier in 2006, forcing him to resign five times and form six different cabinets.
Parliament has also been dissolved three times and fresh elections held.
Immunity
The National Assembly agreed Tuesday during its regular session to lift the parliamentary immunity of MPs Hussein Al-Qalaf and Daifallah Buramiya.
Speaker Jassem Mohammad Al-Khorafi announced the decision after taking vote on the reports by the legislative and legal committee Bills regarding health insurance, the parliament’s annual budgetary of 2010-11, and allowing offspring of Kuwaiti female citizens to join the police force were approved by the parliament during the session.