The Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s parliament has rescheduled its session for discussing the salaries of civil servants to December 2. Initially slotted for Monday, the parliamentary session was supposed to tackle the disbursement of salaries of public workers in the presence of a government delegation.
On Monday, a number of MPs banged on their tables in fierce objection to postponing the session. They also chanted slogans complaining about the delay in the payment of salaries of civil servants.
Parliament Secretary Muna Kahveci, in an official statement, said the legislature has officially requested that the Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) send a representative delegation to respond to inquiries posed by lawmakers.
Given the time it takes for the government to prepare such a delegation, the parliamentary session was postponed to Wednesday, Kahveci confirmed.
Financial disputes between Erbil and Baghdad have harshly affected the salaries of public servants in Kurdistan. Erbil accuses Baghdad of violating or unilaterally abandoning its own agreements with the KRG under the pressure of certain political factions.
Protests and quarrels that erupted between deputies on Monday resulted in cutting off live broadcast coverage of the session. This prompted parliamentarians to record some of the session’s footage with their personal cameras, and later upload the material onto their social media pages.
Video footage shared on social media showed Gorran Movement MP Shirin Amin shouting out slogans on Monday, demanding that the region’s oil is handed over to Baghdad and punishing smugglers and the corrupt.
“Discussing the salaries of public workers and the oil file is a popular demand. It is not the concern of a single faction or party and it is not limited to the classifications of authority and opposition,” said Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) lawmaker, Karwan Gazneyi.
Head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party parliamentary bloc Omed Khoshnaw demanded that opposition forces treat the files in question with responsibility and quit practicing political pressure.
“Problems will not be solved by creating chaos in parliament,” Khoshnaw said.