The local council of Zubair district, west of Basra province, has voted unanimously to request turning the district into a province.
Council members believe the move aims at improving services and infrastructure and increasing the district’s powers.
However, a council member ruled out a decision in favor of the request, saying it comes as part of confusion taking place in general in Basra and the desire of some parties to obtain additional privileges.
Basra, the third largest province after Baghdad and Nineveh and the richest in terms of oil wealth, has been suffering for many years from lack of services, unemployment and poor infrastructure.
These circumstances have prompted citizens to demonstrate on a regular basis, especially with the beginning of summer and the rise in temperatures.
Poverty has also led to growing demands to either turn the district into a province or separate from Basra and become an independent province as is the case with the latest step taken by the district’s local council.
Authorities in Zubair stressed in a statement during a conference held on Monday for this purpose, the need to raise the district’s administrative level into a province upon popular demands and in line of Iraq’s laws.
A number of elders and dignitaries from the district participated in the conference.
The statement revealed that the local council made on Saturday an official request to the local and central governments, within the legal context, to raise the level of services, and improve construction projects and infrastructure.
“The population in Zubair district has exceeded one million people, and needs to develop,” the statement said.
Demands to turn the district into a province comes as part of the growing state of confusion and lack of prioritization in the country in general and Basra in particular, member of Basra Provincial Council Juma al-Zuwaini told Asharq Al-Awsat, saying the latest step taken by Zubair district will most likely fail.
He also accused the Basra Council of acting according to a partisan and sectarian agenda, noting that the problem lies in mismanagement and corruption and not in the administrative transfer of the region from a district to a province.
Zuwaini explained that Basra Province’s Council has the power to turn the administrative units into districts, but the transition into a province is the prerogative of the federal government.
