Competent must get the job

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The government is seriously considering presenting an important and dangerous bill related to the establishment of a central apparatus or body concerned with nationality affairs, and this proposal is more important and urgent than the populist or marginal laws, a number of them most active, and least beneficial, which the parliamentarians struggle to pass with strange and meaningless enthusiasm. The proposed law says the agency must be headed by someone with legal and constitutional experience, and hold the rank of minister, along with a deputy and director general for the authority.

The authority will have the following duties:

1- Propose the necessary measures to confront cases of forgery in nationality, and other cases that are in violation of the provisions of the Nationality Law.

2- Propose the necessary measures to save nationality files, prevent tampering and infringement of the information and data they contain, and maintain their confidentiality.

3- Referring facts related to the Nationality Law, which include suspicions of violations or crimes, to the competent investigation authorities.

4- Studying applications for obtaining Kuwaiti nationality in accordance with the provisions of Article Five of the Nationality Law, and the cases in which Kuwaiti nationality may be granted in accordance with the Naturalization Law.

5- Follow up the implementation of the decrees issued to grant Kuwaiti nationality, withdraw it, forfeit it, or return it to those who lost it, and receive any complaints or information to object to what is published in this regard in the official Kuwait Al-Yawm newspaper to assist the agency in carrying out its responsibilities in this regard.

6- Studying cases of loss of nationality, withdrawal and revocation of it, as well as cases of reinstatement of nationality to those who lost it or to those from whom it was revoked.

7- Working to study the legislation, regulations and decisions regulating nationality issues, and submitting proposals for their development.

The above-mentioned proposal for the law establishing the commission also states that it would report to the Minister of Interior, and this strips it of all impartiality; most, if not all, of the nationality problems that we have suffered from over the past sixty years due to the indulgence of the Ministers of Interior in this sensitive issue, and any insistence on keeping this “dependency” means ‘neither medicine nor evil tomorrow’!

Accordingly, this body is supposed to report directly to the Prime Minister, to give it the importance and independence it deserves. We have suffered enough to learn from the lessons of the past. On the occasion of talking about the establishment of the commission, it is natural to think seriously about who will assume its presidency, and we will not find in the length and breadth of Kuwait, with respect to all, better than the virtuous brother Saleh Al-Fadala, the encyclopedia in the history of the genealogy of the people of Kuwait, and the owner of broad parliamentary and political experience.

He is also the current head of the apparatus for addressing the situation of illegal residents, or stateless persons, to be the head of the Nationality Commission, with the inclusion of all the functions of the stateless committee of the new body. His practical and historical experience with the conditions of Kuwaitis over more than half a century, and his good experiences and biography, qualify him for this position.

By Ahmad alsarraf
e-mail: [email protected]

This news has been read 38977 times!