Iraq’s foreign ministry has issued thousands of diplomatic passports to the country’s top officials and lawmakers, but the parliament wants to regulate the process and include members of the Kurdish parliament for the first time.
Sagvan Sindi, deputy head of the parliament’s security and defence committee, told Rudaw on Friday that the committee has made amendments to the bill to add members of the Kurdistan parliament on the list of people eligible for a diplomatic passport.
“The bill will be voted on soon,” Sindi added. It has already gone through two readings in the parliament.
The Iraqi president and his deputies, the prime minister and his deputies, senior advisors, and a select number of public employees are among those eligible for the passport.
Previously, diplomatic passports were granted based on a government decree and included most of the positions covered by the bill.
The Iraqi parliament on Thursday extended its legislative session for another month as several controversial bills have not been voted on.
