Iraq speaker calls on PM to sack 'corrupt' ministers

BAGHDAD: Iraq's parliament speaker called on Monday for Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi to sack ministers found to be negligent or corrupt as part of a wide-ranging reform drive.

Parliament speaker Salim Al Juburi called on MPs to approve Abadi's measures and said even more reforms were required. The house is to discuss the reforms on Tuesday.

"We asked the prime minister to dismiss a number of ministers who are clearly guilty of dereliction, negligence and corruption," Juburi said in televised remarks.

Juburi did not name specific ministers in his public statement.

But a parliamentary official said those responsible for electricity and water resources were both proposed for the chopping block in a meeting Monday between the speaker and political leaders.

Juburi also called for MPs who are absent more than a third of the time to be removed.

Absent MPs are a perennial problem for the Iraqi legislature, which even failed to reach a quorum for an emergency session called in response to a sweeping offensive by jihadists in June 2014.

- Thousands vent anger -

Amid a major heatwave that has seen temperatures top 50 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit), protesters have railed against the poor quality of services, especially power outages that leave just a few hours of government-supplied electricity per day.

Thousands of people have turned out in Baghdad and various cities in the Shiite south to vent their anger at the authorities.

Their demands were given a boost on Friday when Sistani, who is revered by millions, called for Abadi to take "drastic measures" against corruption, saying that the "minor steps" he had announced were not enough.

Abadi rolled out the reform programme two days later.

One of the most drastic of Abadi's proposals, which were approved by the cabinet on Sunday, was the call for the posts of vice president and deputy prime minister to be eliminated "immediately".

The plan also calls for the elimination of "political and sectarian quotas" for senior officials, for increased oversight to prevent corruption, and for services to be improved, among other measures.

Various parties and politicians have sought to align themselves with the protesters' calls for reforms -- at least in their rhetoric -- to benefit from the movement and mitigate the risk to themselves.

But while politicians from across the political spectrum are now rushing to pledge their support for change, some will be removed in the anti-corruption drive.

Bahaa al-Araji, an unpopular deputy premier in charge of energy affairs, was apparently chosen as the first high-profile example.

Chief prosecutor Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar's office announced Sunday that the anti-corruption court has been ordered to investigate allegations against him.

While people have protested over services and corruption before, those demonstrations failed to bring about significant change.

And even with popular pressure and Sistani's backing, the entrenched nature of corruption in Iraq and the fact that parties across the political spectrum benefit from it will make any efforts to change the system extremely difficult.

Demonstrators who gathered in Baghdad's Tahrir Square on Sunday night praised Abadi's measures, but warned that if they are not implemented, the protests will carry on.