Three Kurdish MPs try to block Iraq budget bill, are suspended 15 days

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Three Kurdish MPs in the Iraqi parliament have had their membership suspended for 15 days and salaries cut off for these days after they blocked the parliament from doing a second reading of the budget bill. The parliamentary session was postponed until Sunday.

“Taking into consideration the way the deputies Masoud Haider Rustam, Sirwan Abdullah Ismael and Shakhawan Abdullah Ahmed behaved on Monday in violating parliamentary conduct, the following punishments are levied on the deputies,” reads an official letter by the Iraqi parliament on Wednesday.

The speeches of the MPs will be erased, their membership will be suspended for 15 days, their salaries will be cut off for the 15 days, and they must appear before the committee of parliamentary conduct. Masoud Haider is from Gorran (Change Movement) while the others are from KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party).

“We will file a complaint against the decision, but being punished for defending the rights of the people of Kurdistan is a source of pride for us,” Haider, a member of Iraqi parliament’s finance committee, told Rudaw.

Haider explained they feel like their status as MPs is at threat of being revoked.

When the parliament decided to do a second reading of the budget bill, Kurdish MPs went to the podium and disrupted it. Shakhawan Abdullah is seen hijacking the budget bill paper from the hands of Jabar Abadi, a finance committee member.

Other Kurdish MPs were seen arguing with fellow lawmakers in front of the Speaker of the Parliament Salim al-Jabouri.

“To prevent the violation of doing a second reading for the budget bill without having a full legal quorum, the Kurdish factions went up to Salim Jabouri and told him that the session was illegal and that it should not take place,” said Renas Jano, a KDP MP.

The Kurdish factions have vowed to continue boycotting the parliamentary sessions until the demands of the Kurdish factions are met. They do not want KRG’s share decreased from 17 to 12.6 percent, with the former having been the established share from after 2003 until 2014 — when Baghdad stopped sharing the budget because of Kurdistan’s independent oil exports.

A concern of the Kurdish representatives is that the current funds allocated to the Kurdistan Region “does not suffice for even one province,” MP Arafat Karam pointed out, according to the parliament’s statement on Monday’s session.

Abadi attended a January 31 session of parliament that was of parliament that was boycotted by all Kurdish factions. 

Kurdish delegation of MPs met with the Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi, regarding the budget last week, but Abadi wouldn’t budge.

The MPs have tried to pressure Abadi to listen to the International Monetary Fund’s recommendation that 12.6 percent is not sufficient to cover the needs of the people in the Kurdistan Region for 2018.