KUWAIT CITY, Feb 19: MP Osama Al-Munawer on Sunday said the reports on his alleged call for the removal of churches from Kuwait highlighted only one of 22 posts he made on Twitter, pointing out the media outfits simply ignored his subsequent posts clarifying his first statement.

According to the lawmaker, he is only against the issuance of permits for the construction of new churches and he did not demand for the removal of the existing ones. He reaffirmed his strict adherence to a fatwa issued by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs prohibiting the construction of worship places for non-Muslims in Kuwait or renting buildings for the same purpose. He asserted this fatwa came from the ministry, so he was surprised when he heard the news about its plan to license the construction of a church in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh. “This is a clear contradiction to the ministry’s own fatwa. Why should we remain silent over the issue? I will forward a question to the minister about this,” he added.

Denying speculations that the issue is on top of his group’s priority list, Al-Munawer clarified he did not talk about the construction of new churches on behalf of the opposition bloc or Islamists; it was his personal view.

Meanwhile, the Educational Committee met Sunday with Minister of Education and Higher Education Nayef Al-Hajraf and they decided to postpone the implementation of a decision on distributing secondary school results to one year period for further study.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Committee Chairman MP Dr Jamaan Al-Harbash said the minister decided to return to the old system, while commending the minister for this initiative and his cooperation. He added the meeting agreed to set up a timetable for priorities in the next stage “and we committed not to politicize decisions on educational affairs. The minister also admitted the mistake of the previous system in terms of the results and this problem has been closed”.

On the other hand, committee member MP Dr Khalid Al-Shukhair confirmed the panel reached an agreement with the minister to postpone the implementation of the decision as they need more time to study it. He said the panel also stressed the importance of putting the interests of students above all else.

Al-Hajraf disclosed his ministry has been studying the issue for several weeks to look into the reasons behind the low passing rate, disclosing they intend to hold a series of meetings to review the decision. He said that in today’s meeting, the ministry explained to the committee its decision to postpone the implementation of the results system until next year to protect the interests of the students. He affirmed the system will be reviewed thoroughly and these decisions are technical, not political, to realize the educational objectives. He added the committees formed under the tenure of his predecessor are still working and they will soon present their recommendations.

In the meantime, around 33 tribal and Islamist MPs met recently at the diwaniya of independent MP Mohammed Al-Dallal. They discussed the parliament majority’s priorities in this legislative round and approved the formation of a committee to coordinate between the MPs to set their priorities on anti-corruption issues and financial disclosure.

The meeting also agreed on the formation of two investigative committees to look into the multi-million deposit case and monetary transfers abroad.

In another development, lawyers Thamir Al-Gadae and Jassar Al-Gadae appealed to the Constitutional Court Sunday against the parliamentary membership of MP Nabil Al-Fadl after obtaining a petition from a number of Third Constituency voters. The group is arguing that Al-Fadl’s parliament membership is invalid due to court cases filed against him for his alleged media violations.

Moreover, Salafist MPs Khalid Sultan, Abdul-Latif Al-Omairi, Dr Mohammed Hassan Al-Kandari, Dr Adel Al-Damkhi and Ammar Mohammed Al-Ajmi presented several draft bills including permit for establishing a Kuwait livestock company by the name “National Livestock Trading Company”, establishment of workers residential areas, establishment of national development fund, issuance of environment law, establishment of anti-narcotics public authority, financial disclosure, dangers of usury (excessive bank interests), establishment of housing real estate companies and conflict of interests prevention.

Furthermore, MP Al-Saifi Mubarak Al-Saifi disclosed that he and his colleagues have presented draft bill on writing off loan interest payments for citizens.

Also, MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan hopes that the government will take initiative to write off citizen’s loans as gesture to Kuwaiti people, adding that lot of draft laws will be presented in this regard to pass it as soon as possible.

On another issue, MP Osama Shaheen has called for re-forming a handicapped committee to take care of this group of people, stressing that there is clear decline and stumble going on in the handicapped sector.

Meanwhile, former candidate of the Second Constituency , Khalil Al-Saleh stated that he submitted an appeal to the Constitutional Court against the election results in the constituency, claiming the results announced were incorrect and he should be declared as the winner of the ninth position.

In a related issue, MPs Faisal Al-Muslim and Mohammed Hayef Al-Mutairi requested the Minister of Interior to provide them with detailed results of the candidates in the 2012 elections from all the constituencies.