By B Izzak

KUWAIT: MP Safa Al-Hashem submitted a proposal yesterday calling to stop issuing residency permits to expats who reach 60 years of age and to deport all expats undergoing treatment at psychiatric hospitals. In addition, the proposal calls on the government to issue a decision banning expats from working two jobs and those found to violate the decision should be deported immediately.

The lawmaker said that her proposal comes as part of efforts to amend the population structure and the large increase in the number of expats, which has increased the burden on the country's infrastructure. The proposal calls to set up a government committee that will be assigned to resolve problems associated with the imbalance in the population composition. Hashem has been regularly targeting expats in the country and stepped up her campaign since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Council of Ministers did not discuss topics related to moving the country into the third phase to return to normal life. The Cabinet is now expected to discuss the issue on Thursday. MP Hashem, who heads the Assembly's financial and economic affairs committee, said yesterday that the panel is due to debate next week a government draft law seeking permission to borrow KD 20 billion over the next 10 years to meet the growing budget deficit.

The lawmaker however warned that without a clear roadmap by the government on how it is going to spend the loan, neither the committee and nor the Assembly will approve the controversial draft law. She said that Kuwait's creditworthiness is still very strong, but said this is being tarnished by a number of corruption cases that have been recently exposed, like the Eurofighter aircraft deal and Kuwaiti investments in California, in addition to trafficking in persons and the Malaysian sovereign fund case.

A parliamentary panel formed to probe violations in the oil sector yesterday recommended that a number of top former and current executives in oil companies should be referred to the public prosecution over suspected violations that cost the sector over KD 3 billion. The committee, which held dozens of meetings, made nine recommendations - all calling to refer oil sector officials to the public prosecution, including the former CEO of Kuwait National Petroleum Co, his deputy and others, head of the panel MP Al-Humaidi Al-Subaei said.

The report claims suspected violations in appointments, promotions and in mega contracts that cost public funds billions of dinars, Subaei said. Member of the committee MP Saleh Ashour said the panel recommended that dozens of projects, individuals and companies be referred to the public prosecution over major violations.