Lifting immunity of 20 members of the Iraqi parliament for investigation
Al-Kazemi’s war on corruption reaches the Iraqi parliament
The judiciary announces the launch of all the demonstrators … and an international warning against the fragility of the economy
The war announced by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi last week, after he took office, knocked on the doors of parliament yesterday, while the judiciary announced the release of all detained protesters.
Al-Kazemi described his government as “the government of difficult challenges,” vowing “to face crises, save what can be saved, and diversify the economy.”
Days after the campaign launched by Al-Kazemi against corruption, the Supreme Judicial Council announced in a statement yesterday that it had issued notes to lift the immunity of 20 members of the Iraqi parliament for investigation, in cases related to financial and administrative corruption.
In another step, within the promises made by Al-Kazemi, the Supreme Judicial Council announced yesterday that «the latest data submitted by all Iraqi courts to the administration of the Council indicates that there is no arrested or convicted of peaceful demonstrators, given that demonstrating is a constitutionally guaranteed right», according to a statement quoted German News Agency.
Last Saturday, Al-Kazemi directed the security services to release all detainees who participated in the demonstrations, and asked the Supreme Judicial Council to cooperate in the release of demonstrators who committed minor cases, with the exception of those involved in blood.
The Prime Minister, who faces difficult political and economic challenges, including the lack of completion of his government, which is still lacking 7 ministerial portfolios, announced in the second meeting of the new cabinet that “this government is the government of difficult challenges, the most important of which is the economic challenge, fighting poverty and unemployment among young people, and the equitable distribution of wealth ». He added, “We will not be courted at the expense of the citizen’s dignity and the interests of the country. We are working to save what can be saved, confront crises and diversify state resources. ”
The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, announced that Baghdad is moving towards internal and external borrowing in order to overcome the financial deficit that the treasury suffers from. Saleh said in a press statement that “the government submitted a draft law to parliament in order to authorize it to borrow from internal and external financing sources, in order to bridge the deficit and enhance public financial liquidity when necessary.” He added that «borrowing came because of the financial hardship that the country is going through and in order to bridge the gap in the revenue shortfall against fixed expenditures, especially in the operational budget».
He explained that «the legal cover did not provide the government with internal and external borrowing due to the absence of the Federal Budget Law for the year 2020». He pointed out that “external loans will go toward supporting investment projects and completing the stalled ones and the urgent need to launch them, while internal loans will be allocated towards the operational budget and the government’s needs for insurance of salaries and others.”
Meanwhile, the United Nations representative in Iraq, Jenin Blashardt, considered the formation of the new government and the appointment of Al-Kazemi a “long-awaited development.” And it said in a report submitted to the Security Council via video from Baghdad, that it has become important “for the Iraqi government to demonstrate that it is able to accomplish the necessary tasks such as maintaining law and order and providing public services”, pointing out that “there is an urgent need for justice and investigation about those responsible for the killing and wound The demonstrators who went out in the past months in Baghdad and a number of provinces. And she saw that «the current economic situation revealed again the gaps in the Iraqi economy as a result of its dependence on oil mainly». She pointed to a number of key points that Iraq must take into account, in order to expand the state’s revenue base and economic situation, including “reducing dependence on oil, repairing and developing infrastructure, fighting favoritism, favoritism and corruption, and building state institutions that serve citizens and are sustainable.”
And I expected “the Iraqi economy to shrink by 9.7 percent this year, with increasing poverty rates to nearly 40 percent.” She stressed that “corruption is perhaps the biggest source of disruption in Iraq, works against the interests of the people and leads to the distancing of donors and investors.”
The UN official affirmed that “local and regional security developments negatively affect Iraq,” warning against “the continued use of Iraq and its territories as a proxy war zone between countries.” She stressed “the necessity to work to combat the emergence of violent extremism and to prevent the return of organizations like (ISIS) to increase their activities.”
The professor of national security, Dr. Hussein Allawi, considered that the major challenge facing the Al-Kazemi government is that “there is a conflict between two tracks of life in Iraq; Between civil life and a life based on the values of political Islam. ” He explained to “Al-Sharq Al-Awsat” that “the forces of political Islam want to keep the traditional political game rules for running the country, while the civil forces want to change the rules of the political game in order to break down the barriers of the political process and transfer it from the style of closed power to open power and open the way for civil society to nominate its leadership Social participation in the management of government and state joints ».
Allawi added: «It seems that we are now moving towards building preliminary understandings that may move Iraq towards a balanced horizon between the two tracks, and therefore Al-Kazemi represents a turning point and the formation of a new national path with all goals, goals and strategies to produce a transformed Iraq towards new elections that produce a political class and change the map of political interaction and give the green light To move from quotas and power-sharing to political technocrats, putting Iraq first. ”
He believed that «whoever wants to thwart the prime minister and his ministerial approach is wrong because the Al-Kazemi path is a national path and works to reshape a third path between the traditional and contemporary tracks… there is an axis that is formed but its tracks are related to Al-Kazemi’s policy beyond the first 100 days of the government’s life, which receives support Large internally by the forces of moderation in all the components that began to view the Iraqi state as a necessity and not a choice.