PM:08:34:30/04/2022
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SULAIMANI
— Hoshyar Abdulla, a former MP in the Iraqi parliament, told Voice of America
(VOA) on Friday (April 29) the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP) were using the issue of retirees’ pensions against each
other.
Abdulla
said the Kurdistan Region was undergoing political turmoil and the KDP, the PUK
and the Change Movement (Gorran) were responsible for future events. He stated
the public was losing faith in the government because it was not carrying out its
role.
The Deputy
Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Qubad Talabani,
should have used the same system of pension and salary distribution in
Sulaimani as is used in Erbil and Duhok, Abdulla said, calling the failure in
the distribution process a shame.
Recent
video footage broadcast on social media has shown mass crowds of elderly men
struggling to receive their pensions and a few retirees have even died over the
past two months while waiting in line for their funds.
Abdulla
said the price of crude oil was currently very high, as is the revenue from oil
sales, but the distribution of salaries in Sulaimani was different from other governorates
in the Kurdistan Region.
He stated
the leaders of the KDP and PUK agree on many issues, such as the situation of revenues
missing from oil and customs at the borders.
In the
event of a disagreement over revenue, Abdulla explained the president of the Kurdistan
Region should come forward and say Sulaimani’s revenue has not been transferred
to the government treasury and hold the PUK and KDP responsible for this
failure.
He stated
he did not see any trouble between the party’s leaders but insisted they would
rather create fake arguments between their MPs as part of a plan to stay in
power.
(NRT Digital
Media)