ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – It has now been nearly five months since the Iraqi finance ministry last had a minister. The department is being run by the deputy minister, Fazil Nabi, while Kurdish parties wait for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to fill the position.
The Kurdish politician Hoshyar Zebari was previously Iraq’s foreign minister in two cabinets, and was then appointed the country’s finance minister in Haider al-Abadi’s cabinet. Confidence was withdrawn from him in a parliamentary vote last September.
Ministerial positions in Baghdad are shared among political parties as part of a quota system. The position of finance minister was initially given to the KDP, which was waiting for the verdict of the federal court on Zebari’s appeal of the decision to remove him as minister. His case was refused by the federal court on December 20, 2016.
Kurdish MPs in Baghdad are now looking to the KDP to fill this position as soon as possible, fearing Kurds may risk losing the important post entirely.
A member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the Iraqi parliament has said that his party will be obliged to fill the gap if the KDP does not take the initiative to do so.
An Islamic League (Komal) member of the Iraqi parliament said that two parliamentary factions have asked him to take on the position, but he has refused the offer.
“Decisive positions shouldn’t be vacant. Although the current duty of the Iraqi finance ministry is only to distribute salaries due to the country’s economic conditions, the position needs to be filled anyway,” Ahmed Haji Rashid, an MP with Komal and head of the finance committee in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw.
“I don’t wish to take the position of finance minister, and I will not accept such offers without prior consensus among Kurds,” Rashid added.
He accused the prime minister of trying to leave important positions vacant. “Haider al-Abadi wants decisive ministerial positions to be empty, as they are an obstacle to him doing certain things which he wants to do.”
The Ministry of Defense is also lacking its leader after Khaled al-Obaidi was removed in a vote of no confidence in August.
The two important ministries are being run by their deputies while the country is at war with ISIS and is going through difficult economic conditions due to declining oil prices.
“The Iraqi government will fill the position of finance minister if the Kurdish political leadership, especially the KDP, doesn’t take the initiative to do so quickly,” Nawzad Rasul, a PUK MP in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw.
“If the KDP doesn’t pick a candidate for the position of finance minister, we as the Kurdish parliamentary factions in Baghdad will be obliged to think of appointing someone for this position,” Rasul added.
“The KDP’s politburo has been careless in not appointing new people for the positions which are now vacant. We have tried to fill them several times, but the politburo told us that they wouldn’t allow us to do so,” Renas Jano, a KDP MP in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw.
“The Kurds have lost nearly 35 positions in Baghdad,” Jano added, referring to the positions of finance minister, military chief of staff, deputy prime minister, deputy interior minister, deputy foreign minister, director of intelligence, general command of the government and parliament, along with a number of other important ministerial positions.
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