Parliament ends questioning of Baghdad’s Lord-Mayor

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Parliament on Saturday, chaired by its Speaker Usama al-Nujeify and with the attendance of 166 Legislatures, ended the questioning of Baghdad’s Lord-Mayor, Sabir al-Issawi and hosted Finance Minister, Rafi’a al-Issawi, a Parliament statement reported. “The Parliament has ended questioning Baghdad’s Lord-Mayor, Sabir al-Issawi, after hearing from witness Hakim Abdul-Zahra, Director-General of Relations and Media in Baghdad’s Mayoralty, in response to a demand by the Lord-Mayor in regards to his questioning by Legislature Shirwan al-Waily,” the statement stressed. Abdul-Zahra pointed to an incident involving a local company director, whose company was prevented from presenting an offer for a certain project. The company’s director was involved in blackmail in an attempt to garner a percentage of a major project, and had threatened to force Baghdad’s Lord-Mayor out of his post if he did not get the percentage, Zahra clarified. Following this testimony, Legislature Ibrahim al-Waily, delivered a speech calling on al-Iraqiya Bloc, led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, to revise its position to boycott the Parliament, stressing that it won’t serve the political process. Al-Waily believes that major steps have been achieved over the past few years, due in part to the existence of a political agreement among the Parliament members and those who hold responsibility after the important achievements, in relation to the withdrawal of the US forces and the broader goals, scored in the democratic life in the country. For his part, Legislature Mahmoud Othman from the Kurdistan Alliance, called for “getting out of the theoretical level to the practical settlement following their assignment, by depending on initiatives, set up by leading officials.” Othman pointed to basic differences in the government over the past year, with several parties feeling marginalized on the issue of security and decision-making, confirming that the demands for the announcement of independent ‘Regions’ was part of feeling this marginalization. On the other hand, the Parliament summoned Finance Minister, Rafi’a al-Asswai, to discuss how the general state budget had been allocated for the year 2012.Assawi confirmed that the budget’s draft had been set up after several meetings with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which depended on an 85-dollar per barrel of crude oil as the main revenue in the budget. The Finance Minister said that about 90-95 percent of the commissioning budget had not been under possibility for cutting short, whilst the investment allocations have exceeded the 2011 budget, adding that the percentage of deficit in the budget had reached 12 percent.