Speaker Rewas Faiq: Parliament should create the right legislative environment to achieve government’s reform and services agenda
Kurdistan Parliament Speaker Dr. Rewas Faiq on 1st September set out the Parliament Presidency’s vision for the autumn session. At the opening sitting, Speaker Faiq said the priority this autumn is to work on at least 14 bills to help deliver the government’s reform and services agenda. The heads of each parliamentary party also presented their legislative priorities. The majority said that the first tasks should be reform legislation and the Kurdistan Constitution.
Speaker’s remarks on legislative agenda for the autumn session
Speaker Faiq in her speech said that the Kurdistan Parliament gave confidence to the new cabinet and its agenda on 10th July 2019, and this autumn will herald much legislative activity. MPs and Parliament have a duty to work on Kurdistan Region’s general budget and to have a clear direction for this session in terms of law-making, scrutiny and follow-up, Dr. Faiq said. MPs should carry out in tandem the complementary duties of scrutiny and law-making, within the framework of the law and Parliament’s Internal Rules of Procedure.
Dr. Faiq discussed the legislative proposals submitted so far. She said that 34 proposals for bills and draft resolutions were passed to Parliament’s Presidency, who looked at them in line with the Internal Rules of Procedure, while the legislative committee and the relevant standing committees discussed them several times before deciding whether they should proceed now or not. Parliament’s Presidency expects the parties and MPs to now turn their attention to the legislative gaps, shortcomings and needs at this stage, and to base their future legislative proposals on greater service to the people of Kurdistan, she said.
The Speaker said that Parliament will continue to work on strengthening its relations with the Kurdistani blocs in the Iraqi parliament, through political ties and in line with Kurdistan Region’s constitutional and legal rights. At the same time, the Kurdistan Parliament, with broad political support for a united and coordinated approach, will work on resolving the problems in Kirkuk and all of the Kurdistani areas outside the KRG administrative area, the arrangements for provincial elections, and holding a general census as decided by the Iraqi government. Parliament’s Presidency supports balanced negotiations between Erbil and Baghdad on resolving the outstanding issues, and finding logical solutions in the interests of the people of Kurdistan and in the interests of increasing political and economic stability.
Regarding a Kurdistan Constitution, Speaker Faiq said that in order to lay the political ground and create the right environment for the committee to prepare a draft and put it to public vote, Parliament’s Presidency is meeting with all the political parties in turn.
On relations between Parliament and the government, the Speaker said that implementing the 9th cabinet’s published agenda needs, to begin with, some 14 to 16 laws and resolutions. The most important of these are bills on reform of income, expenditure, salaries and pensions; reform of healthcare; medicines and food quality control through the creation of a food and drugs national body; bills of patients’ rights, and doctors’ and health workers’ rights; water conservation; amendments to the investment law; agricultural insurance; private sector workers’ social security; and a modern banking system.
Heads of each parliamentary party set out their legislative priorities
The head of each parliamentary bloc presented their party’s legislative priorities for the autumn session, with each having three minutes to speak.
Several opposition parties supported the reform agenda and the Speaker’s main points. Some parties said that the portion of government employees’ salaries withheld during the economic crisis should be paid. The New Generation Party said that helping university students should be a priority; the Kurdistan Islamic Group said violence within families has become a big societal problem, and needs to be combatted quickly. The Kurdistan Islamic Union want to work on a human capacity-building bill, which was discussed in a previous sitting. The communist Freedom Party (Azadi) said that helping to secure the rights of former political prisoners and the reform agenda were priorities.
The parties in the government coalition said that their priority is ensuring that Parliament delivers the government’s agenda of reform and better services to the public. Passing reform bills and the general budget, and reactivating the committee for drafting the Kurdistan constitution are their first tasks.
The heads of parties representing Christians, Turkmen and Armenians stressed drafting a Kurdistan Constitution and other legislation to support peaceful coexistence and the rights of ethnic and religious communities; as well as the reform agenda.
The sitting opened with a minute’s silence to remember the fallen of Kurdistan and Iraq, and the Kurdistan national anthem.
