TNT – “Tidbits From TNT” Wed. Morning 7-9-2025

Tishwash:  Demonstrations in Sulaymaniyah protesting the deteriorating living conditions and delayed salaries. 

Baghdad Today correspondent reported, on Tuesday evening (July 8, 2025), that popular demonstrations broke out in the cities of Ranya and Qala Diza, affiliated with Sulaymaniyah Governorate, in protest against the deteriorating living conditions and the ongoing salary crisis in the region.

Our correspondent said that dozens of young people from both cities took to the streets in angry demonstrations demanding improvements to their living conditions and the payment of overdue salaries. They asserted that “their patience has run out as the crisis continues without any real solutions.”

Our correspondent noted that security forces in the area had begun moving toward the demonstration site to contain the situation, with no clashes reported at the time of writing.  link

Tishwash:  Where are the 2025 budget schedules? Projects are suspended, plans are postponed, and Parliament holds the government accountable.

Despite more than half a year having passed since the start of the fiscal year, the 2025 budget schedules remain absent from the House of Representatives, a scene that rekindles concerns about a financial paralysis that threatens service and development projects in the governorates.

This delay comes despite the country’s adoption of the “Tripartite Budget” law, which was supposed to spare Iraq the annual wait for approval of financial allocations and ensure stability in the flow of funds and project planning.

In this context, the Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Regions and Governorates, Jawad Al-Yasari, ruled out on Tuesday (July 8, 2025) the approval of the 2025 budget schedules during the remaining term of Parliament, holding the government responsible for the delay.

“The Iraqi government is responsible for the delay in approving the 2025 budget schedules, as it has not yet sent them to Parliament for review,” Al-Yasari told Baghdad Today. “We don’t know anything about them yet, and we don’t believe the government is serious about sending them, which is why we rule out approving them within the remaining term of Parliament.”

He added, “This delay has clear consequences, most notably the disruption of the launch of a large number of projects in the governorates, as well as the obstruction of the completion of existing projects that require financial allocations.” He noted that “the government is currently content with paying salaries and outstanding financial obligations, in the absence of schedules and a parliamentary vote on them.”

According to observers, the government’s continued delay in submitting budget schedules reflects confusion in financial planning and a lack of a clear vision regarding spending priorities. This threatens to widen the gap between the central government and the governorates and weaken the state’s ability to fulfill its service and development commitments. It also portends escalating popular discontent in some areas, particularly those that rely on investment allocations for infrastructure development and job creation, at a time when economic and living pressures on citizens are increasing.  link

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Tishwash:  The House of Representatives will hold its first session of the second legislative term next Saturday.

Reciting verses from the Holy Quran

Agenda

Session No. (1)

Saturday 12/June/2025

Al-Nawar session

Affairs Department

First: Voting on the proposed law of the Iraqi Programmers Syndicate. Labor and Civil Society Organizations Committee, Legal Committee), (26) articles.

Second: Voting on the draft law of mental health. (Health and Environment Committee), (42) articles.

Third: Voting on the draft law of protection from the harms of tobacco. Health and Environment Committee), (21) articles.

Fourth: First reading of the proposed law of the Union of Private Hospitals in Iraq. Health and Environment Committee), (8) articles

Fifth: Report and discussion of the second reading of the proposed law amending the first amendment to the Law of the National Authority for Nuclear, Radiological, Chemical and Biological Control No. (1) of 2024. (Health and Environment Committee).

Sixth: Report and discussion of the second reading of the proposed law amending the third amendment to the Law on Compensating Those Affected Who Lost Parts of Their Bodies as a Result of the Practices of the Former Regime No. (5) of 2009, as amended. (Martyrs, Victims and Political Prisoners Committee).

Seventh: Report and discussion of the second reading of the draft law on the Republic of Iraq’s accession to the Convention Amending the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material (Foreign Relations Committee, Health and Environment Committee).

The session begins at one o’clock in the afternoon  link