07 March 2011
Najaf - The head of the Legal Committee in Najaf provincial council said on Sunday that 12 members out of 28 have voted for the province to become a semi-autonomous region similar to Kurdistan in the north of Iraq which attained semi-autonomy in the early 1990s.
Farouk al-Ghazali told AKnews that the number of council members in favor of the scheme exceeds the one-third threshold that the law demands, and that a formal request will be submitted to the presidency of the provincial council on Tuesday which can then be passed on to the Iraqi Prime Minister.
"Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will then ask, according to the law, the Electoral Commission to hold a referendum in the province that includes at least 50% of its constituents," Ghazali explained, "...and if the request receives more than a 50% majority of the participating votes, Najaf will become a (semi-autonomous) region."
As a supporter of the scheme, Ghazali said that the aim behind it is to improve the provision of services to Najaf citizens, adding that there is no underlying political agenda.
The scheme, he said, "came from members belonging to different blocs, not only one".
"If Najaf was a (semi-autonomous) region, it would have received three times what was allocated to it in the 2011 budget," he said, add
ing that "...what it did receive is not suitable for a province".
"The request was signed by members of all political blocs in the provincial council," he said, "...which include the Ahrar Party belonging to the Sadrist Current, the Mihrab Martyr Party that belongs to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), the State of Law Coalition (SLC) led by PM Maliki, the Reform Movement led by Jaafari and the Najaf Fidelity Bloc".
Containing the shrine of Imam Ali, Shiite Islam's first Imam, Najaf is considered to be one of the most important religious centers in Iraq and the world. The province receives hundreds of thousands of visitors form other Iraqi provinces and abroad each year.
Although the Iraqi constitution allows for the establishment of semi-autonomous regions according to specific legal mechanisms, only the northern Kurdistan Region composed of Erbil, Sulaimaniya and Dohuk provinces has so far attained this status.
Najaf - The head of the Legal Committee in Najaf provincial council said on Sunday that 12 members out of 28 have voted for the province to become a semi-autonomous region similar to Kurdistan in the north of Iraq which attained semi-autonomy in the early 1990s.
Farouk al-Ghazali told AKnews that the number of council members in favor of the scheme exceeds the one-third threshold that the law demands, and that a formal request will be submitted to the presidency of the provincial council on Tuesday which can then be passed on to the Iraqi Prime Minister.
"Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will then ask, according to the law, the Electoral Commission to hold a referendum in the province that includes at least 50% of its constituents," Ghazali explained, "...and if the request receives more than a 50% majority of the participating votes, Najaf will become a (semi-autonomous) region."
As a supporter of the scheme, Ghazali said that the aim behind it is to improve the provision of services to Najaf citizens, adding that there is no underlying political agenda.
The scheme, he said, "came from members belonging to different blocs, not only one".
"If Najaf was a (semi-autonomous) region, it would have received three times what was allocated to it in the 2011 budget," he said, add
ing that "...what it did receive is not suitable for a province".
"The request was signed by members of all political blocs in the provincial council," he said, "...which include the Ahrar Party belonging to the Sadrist Current, the Mihrab Martyr Party that belongs to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), the State of Law Coalition (SLC) led by PM Maliki, the Reform Movement led by Jaafari and the Najaf Fidelity Bloc".
Containing the shrine of Imam Ali, Shiite Islam's first Imam, Najaf is considered to be one of the most important religious centers in Iraq and the world. The province receives hundreds of thousands of visitors form other Iraqi provinces and abroad each year.
Although the Iraqi constitution allows for the establishment of semi-autonomous regions according to specific legal mechanisms, only the northern Kurdistan Region composed of Erbil, Sulaimaniya and Dohuk provinces has so far attained this status.
© AK News 2011
