MP calls on Iraqi Prime Minister to meet demonstrators.

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com – The Chairman of Iraq’s Unity Coalition, Jawad al-Bolany, has called on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to meet the demonstrators in central Baghdad’s al-Tahrir (Liberation) Square next Friday, in order to listen to their demands.   Bolany told a news conference in Baghdad, attended by IraqiNews.com news agency on Saturday, that his “Coalition has demanded the Prime Minister to attend the demonstration, scheduled to take place in al-Tahrir Square next Friday, to listen to the demands of the demonstrators, through opening a ‘field bureau’ to discuss those demands.”   Bolany said that his Coalition “was planning to cut short the number of cabinet posts in the new government, through presenting a detailed study to the Iraqi Parliament, thing that would save over 200 million US dollars from Iraq’s new budget.”   “Such a large amount shall help in building several economic service projects that can cut short the number of unemployed people in the country,” Bolany added.   The majority of Iraqi provinces have witnessed on Feb. 25th and March 4th, a series of demonstrations, called by social society organizations, protesting on the deteriorated public services, demanding political reforms and putting an end to administrative corruption and unemployment.   Following the said demonstrations, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had defined a 100-day period “to achieve the demands of the demonstrators,” to be followed by “a revision for the percentage of achievements and accounting the corrupt elements.”   Bolany, in conclusion, said that his Coalition “had also called the political blocs in the Iraqi Parliament to put aside their differences, and concentrate on the basic demands of the people, during the forthcoming period, in order to settle the prerequisites of the masses, reflected by lack of electric power, unemployment, poverty, ingredients of the government’s Rational Card, as well as the achievement of employment opportunities, housing and services projects.   FT / SKH 338