Parliament passes Law on Protection of Local Products; votes to exclude Dr. Kazim Faruq from sittings until he apologizes for showing disrespect
Kurdistan Parliament sat on 31 March for readings of several bills and passed the Law on Protection of Local Products, with 73 votes.
The first readings were held of the Bill on the Electricity Ministry of Kurdistan Region – Iraq, and the Second Amendments to the Law on the General Integrity Commission (Law No. 3 of 2011). Speaker Rewaz Faiq asked the relevant standing committees to work on the two bills to prepare them for their second readings at a future date.
The Commerce and Industry Committee and the Legislative Committee read out all the proposals for each article of the Bill on the Protection of Local Products, and each proposal was put to vote, as well as the purpose of the bill and in its entirety. The bill was passed into law with the vote of 72 MPs.
The purpose of the law is to help develop and support domestic industry and agriculture, ensure fair competition, provide suitable opportunities for local producers by increasing their abilities, helping them to prepare to compete in the local and global markets, while taking into account the interests of domestic consumers with the aim of reducing negative and harmful impacts and preventing rises in the price of local products.
After a short break, Speaker Faiq referred to the disrespectful act of Dr. Kazim Faruq, the head of the New Generation Party’s parliamentary block, of throwing shoes at Parliament’s Presidency. Dr. Faiq said, “On the request of some MPs, after the disrespect shown to Parliament by MP Dr. Karim Faruq in preparing in advance at home a pair of shoes that his party’s leader directed him to hurl effectively at himself and at his own stage, to rectify this act we in Parliament’s Presidency will put the decision to your vote because Parliament’s rules of procedure do not give remedies for such an act.”
Speaker Faiq continued, "Because of the disrespect that MP Kazim Faruq showed towards the institution of Parliament in Parliament's plenary hall at the fifth ordinary sitting of the spring session of the third year of the fifth term on 31 March 2021, we [the Presidency] have decided to deprive the parliamentarian of Parliament sittings until he apologizes formally to Parliament.” The Presidency’s proposal was passed with the vote of 73 MPs.
Parliament then continued the second reading of the Bill on Conservation of Water Networks in Kurdistan Region, which began at the sitting of 10 March. Deputy Speaker Hemin Hawrami presided over the reading and MPs gave their comments and suggestions on articles of the bill. The bill will be put to vote at a future sitting.
For the last item on the Order of Business, the second reading of the Bill on the Import and Sale of Oil Products in Kurdistan Region, Deputy Speaker Hawrami said that there was not enough time to read and discuss the bill and Parliament’s Presidency decided to postpone it to the next sitting.
