KUWAIT CITY, March 2: The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shamali surprised the Financial Affairs Committee of Parliament when he excused himself from attending a meeting scheduled to take place today to discuss new ideas on resolving the debt crisis of citizens.

Parliamentary sources said the Finance Minister’s decision to be excused from the meeting means the debt issue will become more complicated after the Speaker of National Assembly Ali Al-Rashid has delighted the public with news to solve the problem by the end of March.

Sources also affirmed the minister has the right to be excused from the meeting if he is engaged in other official duties, although his absence prolongs the suffering of the citizens whose hope have been rekindled by members of the Parliament pressing for radical solution to the debt crisis.

Sources indicated the committee has another way of dealing with the absence of the Finance Minister by completing the supplementary report based on the latest agreement signed at the meeting of the heads of both authorities-including the head of the finance committee and finance minister, despite the report may lead to petitioning of the government due to the absence of the concerned minister to the meeting that should have discussed the new concept for debt crisis.

The sources noted the finance committee can hold a meeting at the sideline of Tuesday’s meeting to complete its report or schedule another meeting after the week that follows the parliamentary session, and then refer the report to be voted on during March 19 parliamentary session.

As regards the future of the Finance Minister’s grilling taking place during the 5th Parliamentary session this month, sources said there is no direct relationship between grilling of the minister and the financial committee report on loans-particularly on the technical side of the issue. With the political entanglement between the minister’s grilling and loans issue, the members of parliament will decide on and vote on it inside the Parliament.