The newspapers issued in Baghdad today, Tuesday, August 22, followed the laws prepared for approval in the Parliament, the reasons for the delay in enacting the slums law, and other issues, including those related to the Development Road.
Al-Zaman newspaper followed the most important laws to be approved by the House of Representatives during the coming period.
In this regard, it quoted the MP of the State of Law bloc, Firas Al-Maslamawi, as saying: “The priority of the parliament presidency is to legislate laws sent by the government and in the second stage come the proposals for laws and committees.”
Al-Maslamawi added, “Among the important laws that Parliament intends to legislate after receiving its draft is the oil and gas law.”
He explained: “There is a parliamentary and governmental will to legislate it in a way that preserves justice in the distribution of wealth.”
The MP indicated the Parliament’s determination to support the vulnerable segments with regard to small and income-generating projects, as this law has been approved and has become effective, in addition to the Information Technology Law being a very important law that is concerned with electronic extortion.
He concluded by saying: “There is a trend among the political blocs and forces to form legal committees, aiming to take the initiative and legislate laws that directly affect the life of the citizen,” noting: “The government has withdrawn 9 laws, most notably the law of slums, pending sending them to Parliament for a vote.
Al-Zawraa newspaper, published by the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, followed the most prominent challenges facing the legislation and implementation of the slums law.
A member of the Parliamentary Services Committee, Haider Ali Sheikhan, said in an interview with the newspaper: “The law was presented to the Services and Construction Committee, and it came to us from the government of former Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
He added: “We proceeded with the amendments to the law in partnership with the Legislative Department in the House of Representatives for the purpose of the legal sobriety of the law and reached the final results until it is read a second reading, but we were surprised that it was withdrawn by the government, but we did not stop and we followed up the issue with the Prime Minister and he received the draft on which the amendment was made and decisions were issued by the Council of Ministers, including Resolution 418, which deals with the treatment of slums, the ownership of transgressors, and others.
Regarding the most prominent challenges before the law, he explained: “Some lands are burdened with disposal rights for others, some lands belong to other ministries, and most of the lands belong to the Ministry of Finance, and these are technical challenges, not political ones, and by amending the law we have solved all these problems so that the Baghdad Municipality and the municipalities in the provinces can own these lands.” And it shall have sectoral designs that define the areas of real estate for the purpose of owning trespassers according to the law, controls and instructions, and the municipalities and the Municipality are able to own the streets and introduce them to the urban planning and organize these streets and turn them into sectoral designs according to the controls and instructions for the roads.
He pointed out that there are 4 million Iraqis living in slums, especially in Baghdad and the governorates of central and southern Iraq, and they have become a reality, and they must be organized so that the government can provide services to these areas, as well as the non-beneficiary Iraqi citizen who can own the land according to the regulations and standards of organizing cities.
In another matter, Al-Sabah newspaper, published by the Iraqi Media Network, dealt with guarantees that the (Development Road) project would not be used as a pressure card against Iraq in the future, especially in the water-share negotiations with Turkey.
It referred to the words of the writer and researcher in political affairs, Qasim Balshan Al-Tamimi: “The development road is a step towards transforming Iraq into a multipolar economy, as it starts from the far south of Iraq to the farthest point in the north, and its length when it reaches the Iraqi-Turkish border point is 1200 km.”
Al-Tamimi asked: What are the Turkish guarantees not to impede the passage of this road in the future? In other words, how do we ensure that Turkey will not work to stop the continuation of this road in the future, indicating: “Iraq has agreements and treaties with Turkey in this regard since the Lausanne Agreement in 1923, the Friendship Agreement in 1946, the two agreements of 1982 and 1992, and many other agreements,” pointing to that “large parts of these agreements have not been implemented.”
He called for finding a guarantee before spending huge amounts of money on the (development road), involving the United Nations, and for the road to be under international auspices and not subject to political fluctuations, noting that “Iraq can make (development road) enjoy international protection away from the political and military differences between Baghdad and Ankara and other countries in the region.
In addition, the political analyst, Omar Al-Nasser, called, in an interview with Al-Sabah, the government to take a proactive move to confront any possible scenario in the long term in the event that the (development road) that will link the East with the West through Iraq and Turkey is operational, since the atmosphere of diplomatic relations with Ankara, it went through periods of fluctuations and tensions and was marred by a lot of tension, given that the link with Europe will be through Turkey, which was the first country to welcome and express its willingness to enter this strategic and vital project, because it will achieve a great economic leap for Ankara through a decrease in the cost of exporting Turkish goods and an increase Transit fares in its territory.
Source: National Iraqi News Agency
