Iraq’s State of Law Bloc withdraws from Parliament’s session

BAGHDAD  / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Parliament Members from the State of Law Coalition, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, has withdrawn from the Parliament’s Wednesday session, in rejection to the 1 st  reading of the draft Oil & Gas Law, its Legisalture, Ali Shubbar said.   “The State of Law Coalition withdrew from the Parliament’s session this (Wednesday) afternoon, after its rejection of the 1 st  reading of the draft Oil & Gas Law, due to the fact that the draft-law was presented to the Parliament by its Energy Committee and not by the Oil Ministry or the Council of Ministers,” Shubbar told IraqiNews.com news agency.   Shubar said that the Parliament “shall host Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs, Hussein al-Shahristany and the resigned Electricity Minister, Raad Shallal and the Chairman of the Haj (Pilgrimage) Commission, Mohammed Taqi al-Moula, after the Parliament’s rest time.”   “The Parliament’s Speaker had lifted the session for half an hour for discussions among different Political Blocs,” pointing out that his “Coalition’s viewpoint towards the said draft-law had not been settled yet.”   Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, had sacked his Electricity Minister, Raad Shallal, in the background of financial and administrative corruption, after reports that he had concluded “illusionary” contracts by his Ministry, for 1.7 billion (b) US dollars, according to Ministry sources.   Noteworthy is that Raad Shallal belongs to al-Iraqiya Coalition, led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.   Iraq is suffering from an intensive electric power crisis, at a time when its summer temperature had exceed 50 degrees Celsius, and power cuts that reach more than 18 hours in most Iraqi provinces. SKH (RT) 997