Tishwash: Iraq is “crowded” with all kinds of holidays: Businesses are halted and employees “are not compensated” for official working hours
Hardly a week goes by in Iraq without one of its days being a holiday, paralyzing Iraqis and making some of them “happy” and others “grumpy,” especially with the cessation of work in official departments.
According to the reading of specialists and researchers, Iraq is the country that witnesses the most disruption in official working hours. If the federal government does not declare a holiday, it authorizes the governorates and districts to make the day they want an official holiday.
The official holidays in Iraq for the year 2024 are as follows:
January 1, New Year’s Day
January 6, Iraqi Army Day
April 10th for three days, Eid al-Fitr
May 1, Labor Day
June 16-20, Eid al-Adha
June 26, Eid al-Ghadir
According to expectations, the Islamic New Year will fall on July 7.
July 14, Revolution 14 (public holiday)
According to expectations, July 16 will be the tenth of Muharram (an official holiday), and the birth of the Prophet Muhammad will be on September 15.
October 3, Iraqi National Day
December 10, Iraqi Victory Day.
All of these holidays are official, and are specified by an official law voted on by Parliament on May 22, 2024, for Iraqis to enjoy, excluding the weekend, which is designated as (Friday and Saturday).
Earlier, economic expert Nabil Al-Marsoumi said:
*Year = 48 weeks
*Total official holidays per year (Friday and Saturday) = 96 days
*Total official occasions in the year = 22 days
*Total number of official holidays per year = 118 days.
According to Al-Marshoumi, these holidays “are added to religious occasions and emergency holidays such as rain and high temperatures announced by the central government and local governments, which are estimated at about 22 days a year, the highest in the world, while there are 8 official holidays in England and Wales, which is considered one of the fewest number of holidays in the world.”
He continued: “The total number of official and unofficial holidays is 140 days, and the total number of annual working days is 225 days,” noting that “the total number of employees’ salaries, including self-financing and contracts, is 70 trillion dinars.”
Al-Marsoumi pointed out that “the average daily salary is 192 billion dinars, which represents the daily loss from the disruption of work, while the total financial losses from unofficial holidays, except for Friday and Saturday, may amount to 4.224 trillion dinars, and the total financial losses from official and unofficial holidays, except for Friday and Saturday, amount to 8.448 trillion dinars.”
Most Iraqi cities and districts contain shrines for the masters and infallibles, and if the anniversary of one of their martyrdoms falls, the governorate declares an official holiday that includes all its departments, or it is designated in a specific district or district, as happened with the Babylon Governorate Council.
The council said in a statement today, Wednesday, that it had “voted to suspend official work in Al-Hamza Al-Gharbi only for tomorrow, Thursday, on the occasion of the martyrdom of the grandson of Al-Abbas, peace be upon him.”
Unlike Al-Marsoumi, economic expert Dhurgham Muhammad Ali does not see any losses incurred by Iraq due to official holidays, while he pointed out the existence of “benefits.”
Ali said in an interview with “Eshan”: “Official holidays in Iraq do not constitute major losses for government departments because most government departments are service-oriented, not productive.”
He explained that “the increase in official holidays leads to a reduction in electricity consumption, traffic congestion and fuel. On the other hand, there are no major economic losses resulting from the holiday because the departments are only service departments, and most of the departments that are in contact with citizens’ lives, such as health, emergency services and others, continue their work.”
He pointed out that “the economic losses come only from the fact that the number of working hours for employees is less for the same salaries, and this is not considered a direct loss.” link
************
Tishwash: Carrying the Kurds’ “dreams”… Barzani in Baghdad
The office of the President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Masoud Barzani, announced that the party leader will visit Baghdad today, Wednesday (July 3, 2024), to hold a series of meetings with Iraqi officials and political leaders.
Barzani’s office said in a statement received by Baghdad Today, “The party’s leader will visit Baghdad today to hold a series of meetings with political parties and political leaders.”
He added, “The budget, the formation of the local government in Kirkuk, the Sinjar issue, and the election of the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament will be among the main topics in his meetings.”
According to local reports and Kurdish sources, the visit was described as not to discuss pending files, but rather as a final culmination of the end of all technical and legal discussions on all current files, at least those related to salaries and political crises, while the major files related to the oil and gas law and the file of resuming the export of the region’s oil, which has become a vicious circle between Baghdad and foreign companies operating in the region, continue.
Barzani’s visit also coincides with the Turkish incursion and ground operations it is carrying out in northern Dohuk within the Kurdistan Region, while these operations came in accordance with a prior agreement between Baghdad and Ankara during the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Baghdad link
************
CandyKisses: Al-Gizani: Barzani’s visit is the culmination of a positive movement between Baghdad and Erbil
{Politics:Euphrates News} A member of the General Assembly of the Hikma Movement, Sami Gizani, promised the visit of the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Massoud Barzani, “coronation” of a positive movement between Baghdad and Erbil.
Al-Jizani, during his hosting of the program {Free Word} broadcast by the Euphrates satellite channel this evening, said:
– Barzani’s visit came to consolidate relations and the state of clarity and transparency is present in Baghdad and is the culmination of a positive movement between Baghdad and Erbil.
– Baghdad remains the sponsor, and the country can for everyone under the constitution and laws to regulate the relationship with Erbil.
-The Sudanese government of Mohammed Shia has 3 elements of a force and is {a parliamentary arm, a coalition of state administration, and the personality of the prime minister}.
– Personal desires weaken the building of the homeland, and there are parties working to make crises and harmony and peace do not benefit them, and we need to make ranks and it is in Iraq’s interest that Baghdad and Erbil are strong.
– Iraq emerged from a major crisis after the victory over the terrorist ISIS, and the sounds of starrel are working to create a repelling environment for the meeting, politics and the economy, and today we need a national voice that represents all Iraqis and the coalition of the state administration is a successful model of Iraqi unity.
– The size of the problems during the many 20 decades between Baghdad and Erbil and there are parties in the region talking about issues contrary to the constitution. We believe that the Constitution and the decisions of the Federal Court are enough to solve all crises. Therefore, there is a desire on the parties to whistle them and the conviction that dialogue is the only way to solve the problems.
– Dialogue is a health condition and the political player has every strength in dismantling the scene and Barzani’s visit to the coordination framework and the state administration reflects the state of maturity in the political scene.
– The personal contract affected the political scene between Baghdad and Erbil, and the dialogue will end the crises, and internal stability will block the way for foreign interference in Iraqi affairs.
– The exit of the international coalition forces from the country must be an Iraqi non-political decision, and the localization of salaries for the region’s employees is a force for Baghdad and Erbil.
The head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Massoud Barzani, arrived today, Wednesday, in the capital Baghdad on an official visit, where Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, who in turn confirmed that he has come an important way in building trust between the federal governments and the region, while Barzani pointed out that the Sudanese is leading the state with intentions that have reached everyone to this comfortable situation.
It is noteworthy that after a break that lasted about 6 years, the President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Massoud Barzani, visits Baghdad, in a sign of the positivity of the current relations between the Kurdistan region and the federal government.
