KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait yesterday appeared headed for a new political showdown after an opposition lawmaker filed to quiz the prime minister over allegations of misuse of public funds.

MP Faisal Al-Muslim alleges that the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah misappropriated the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars in the run-up to last year’s general election.

“The error is very grave and cannot be overlooked. It is related to the top executive official in the country and also to public funds,” Muslim told reporters after filing the request.

Two other parliamentary groups have vowed to file separate requests to question the premier.

The Islamic Constitutional Movement, political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, has said it will file today a request to question the premier over his role in a scrapped deal with US firm Dow Chemical. The opposition Popular Action Bloc also threatened to quiz Sheikh Nasser if the government ignores its amendments to a multibillion dollar stimulus bill to shore up the emirate’s financial system because of the global downturn.

The new developments complicate an already tense political situation in the country, with expectations that the crisis could again lead to Parliament be-ing dissolved.

“We appear to be headed into a black hole. I believe that some difficult decisions will be made,” political analyst Anwar Al-Rasheed said.

Two requests to question the prime minister were filed in the past, and both led to crises after he refused to be quizzed.

The first in May 2006 led to the dissolution of Parliament and fresh elections, while the second last November caused the Cabinet to resign.

Sheikh Nasser became premier for the first time in February 2006, and has been under constant political pressure ever since.

The most recent of his five Cabinets was appointed in January.

His four previous Cabinets resigned after disputes with Parliament, the last in November after three Islamist MPs filed to quiz him over allegations of mismanagement and allowing a banned Iranian cleric to enter Kuwait.

“If the prime minister refuses to be questioned, like in previous times, he will either resign again or Parliament could be dissolved... I just hope it won’t be a suspension of Parliament this time,” Rasheed said.

Last week, a group of activists and academics warned against suspending Parliament after columnists called for just such a move as a way of halting political disputes stalling development.

Under the Constitution, only the emir can dissolve Parliament and call for fresh elections within 60 days.

Last June, Parliament voted to ask the independent Audit Bureau to investigate allegations of “suspicious” spending of 23 million dinars ($86 million) by the premier’s office in 2007 and 2008.

The bureau uncovered some irregularities in spending procedures, including violations of financial and accounting rules, but could not explicitly say whether there had been any wrongdoing.

Last month the Cabinet decided to refer the Audit Bureau report to the public prosecution service, and is still awaiting the response.

MPs urge interest-free loans for citizens

Five Kuwaiti MPs submitted a bill yesterday calling on the government to give every citizen interest-free loans to help them cope with the fallout of the global economic crisis.

The bill aims to grant each Kuwaiti aged above 21 a loan of 10,000 dinars ($35,000) and a loan of 1,000 dinars ($3,500) to those younger, to be repaid over 15 years.

One of the MPs, Marzouk Al-Ghanem, told reporters that the loans would require a total of around 4.5 billion dinars from the state coffers.

He said the aim of the bill, which will be reviewed by a parliamentary panel before being voted on in the house, was to help citizens repay their debt to banks and cope with the impact of the global financial crisis.

Kuwait has a native population of just above one million people, in addition to 2.4 million foreign residents.

Lawmakers have been pressing the government to buy around $21 billion of consumer loans owed to local banks and then reschedule their payments over 25 years, making them interest-free.

Last month, the government submitted a multibillion dollar stimulus bill to shore up banks and help distressed investment firms repay their estimated $17-billion debt, but it is facing stiff opposition from many MPs.

The emirate has lost around $31 billion of its estimated $300-billion foreign investments due to the global economic crisis, according to MPs, but unofficial reports put the losses at much higher.