Parliament passes Law on Ownership of Illegally Used Land in Kurdistan Region’s Municipalities

Speaker Dr. Rewas Faiq on 30 October chaired a sitting at which MPs voted in a law on the ownership of lands that have been illegally used or taken in the municipalities of the Kurdistan Region. 100 MPs voted in favour of the bill as a whole, out of Parliament’s 111 members. The law allows people who illegally used or built on land in municipalities to buy the land from the government and register it in their names. At the sitting two other bills had their first readings, and Speaker Faiq asked the relevant committees to work on them. They are a bill on patients’ rights and responsibilities; and a bill on commercial advertising.

This was Parliament’s sixth sitting of the autumn session, in the first year of the fifth term. Deputy Speaker Hemin Hawrami and the Secretary Muna Kahveci also attended.

MPs voted on each article of the bill on ownership of illegally used land in municipalities, and on the bill as a whole. 100 MPs voted in favour of the bill as a whole, out of Parliament’s 111 members.

The voting on each article of the bill was as follows:

• The title of the bill was changed to Law on Ownership of Lands that have been Illegally Used or Taken in the Municipalities of the Kurdistan Region - Iraq, and was approved unanimously.
• Article 1 on the reasons for issuing the law and was passed by majority vote.
• Article 2 on the conditions of ownership of the land was passed by 85 votes.
• Article 3 sets out the procedures for forming a special committee to evaluate and approve the applications to register the land, and was passed by 67 votes.
• Article 4 relates to the implementation of the law and the obligations of those who used land illegally. 80 MPs voted in favor of the article.
• Articles 5 and 6 relate to the sizes of the plots that have been used. 77 MPs voted in favor of these articles.
• Article 7 sets out how the revenues from sale of the land should be distributed and was passed by 75 votes.
• Two articles after Article 7 were added to the bill.
• Articles 10 and 11 gave the reasons for issuing the law, and were passed by majority of votes.
• The final provision of the law was approved by 80 votes.

 

Dr Faiq congratulated MPs on the passage of the law and said she hopes that the KRG Ministry of Municipalities will make every effort to provide public services to these areas based on the law. She also asked MPs to work on bills that are directed to their committees.