Minister Aqeel to face grilling in April?

By A Saleh

KUWAIT: Well-informed sources said despite being in office for only a few days, Minister of Social Affairs and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Mariam Al-Aqeel will face a grilling motion soon. The sources added that lawmakers who had been threatening to grill the minister when she was minister of finance are the same ones making the recent threats.

“The motion is expected to be filed by the beginning of April,” the sources said, pointing out that some lawmakers, including Al-Humaidi Al-Subaei and Mubarak Al-Hajraf have some issues with the social aid and disability payments currently supervised by Aqeel. “Those two files are expected to reappear strongly, although they had been discussed during the tenure of the former minister of social affairs Saad Al-Kharraz,” the sources underlined.

The sources added that as minister of finance, Aqeel had had strong opinions on cutting social aid and giving them only to those who deserve it. She also demanded reviewing the lists of disability aid recipients to hold those faking disability accountable.

Vegetable outlets closed
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) announced closing seven vegetable outlets at the fruit and vegetable market for violating related regulations. A statement issued by the ministry explained that the shuttered stores had been previously warned and fined for the same violations.

Separately, Kuwait Municipality rejected applications to issue independent licenses for massage centers, noting that the licenses are only issued for spas providing massages as part of their services.