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Judge oil minister on performance, not wrongly-worded statement: MP; ‘Give Sheikh Ali opportunity to deal with violations’

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Arab Times , KUWAIT CITY: With both the Popular Bloc and National Bloc increasing the heat on him and leading a tireless campaign to oust him from the Cabinet, Oil Minister Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah says he has left the issue of his resignation in the hands of HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah. A reliable governmental source said Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah’s resignation will depend on the nature of the grilling motion expected to be submitted next week by MPs Musallam Al-Barrak and Faisal Al-Muslem, and the number of MPs who support the grilling. On the same issue, MP Dr Waleed Al-Tabtabaei said “we should judge Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah on his performance and not on the basis of a wrongly worded statement. We should give the minister a final opportunity to deal with the violations, which were revealed by MPs.”

Stressing lawmakers can reach “a gentlemen’s agreement between themselves to postpone the grilling of Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah,” he said “we must respect the wishes of HH the Amir by staying away from more escalations.” Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah should not sack top officials, who are competent, from the Oil Ministry, he said. Meanwhile, a reliable source said the Salaf Movement may come up with a surprise proposal to grill Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Abdullah Al-Maatuq before the grilling of Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah. In other developments, MP Ahmed Baqer held a consultative meeting with members of the Islamic Bloc at his home recently. We discussed many important issues and will invite members other blocs to coordinate our views, he said. MPs of the new Islamic Bloc were not invited to Baqer’s consultative meeting.

Also MP Mohammed Al-Saqer has launched a verbal attack against Minister of Oil Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah and prophesized that Al-Jarrah’s days in the ministry are numbered, reports Al-Qabas daily. Reacting to the minister’s complimentary comments about former minister Sheikh Ali Al-Khalifa, whom Al-Jarrah described as an ‘ideal person,’ Al-Saqer said, “Al-Khalifa is the fifth suspect in the Oil Tankers case and a number of MPs are following up the case.” He also wondered why MP Nasser Al-Sane is insisting on allocating a specific location for the Information City project.