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Lion of Babylon -> He's Back!!!! (7/20/2007 12:07:22 AM)
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[X(] Mashhadani is back!! [X(]
Dozens of Sunni Arab legislators ended their five-week boycott of Parliament on Thursday, returning after what appeared to be a deal with Shiite lawmakers allowing Mahmoud Mashhadani, the volatile Sunni Parliament speaker, to return to his job and then resign, potentially with a sizable pension and retirement benefits.
In theory, the return to Parliament of 44 members of the main Sunni political bloc, coming days after lawmakers loyal to the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr ended their own boycott, will make it easier for lawmakers to reach a quorum and pass legislation.
But lawmakers remain deeply divided over every major legislative question, including whether to allow former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party to hold positions of power and the distribution of wealth from Iraq’s vast oil fields. Lawmakers also plan to take a monthlong holiday in August.
Still, six cabinet ministers from the main Sunni political bloc, the Iraqi Consensus Front, continue to boycott meetings to protest the handling of accusations that one of the six, Culture Minister Asad al-Hashimi, masterminded the attempted assassination of another politician. Six other ministers from Mr. Sadr’s bloc have also left the cabinet.
Mr. Mashhadani was ousted from the speaker’s job in June after he and his guards were accused of a series of physical assaults on legislators.
On Thursday, Mr. Mashhadani sat in the speaker’s chair for the first time in a month. But members of his party said they expected him to step down and be replaced by another Sunni Arab lawmaker.
Some lawmakers said Sunnis and Shiites had reached a deal built around coming legislation that would allow Mr. Mashhadani and any other Parliament member who resigned to receive monthly retirement payments equal to 80 percent of their current monthly salary and benefits.
“This law was designed to solve the Mashhadani resignation,” said Shatha al-Mussawi, a lawmaker and member of the dominant Shiite political coalition, referring to pension legislation now under debate.
Some legislators are paid the equivalent of $13,000 to $16,000 per month to cover their wages and also salaries for guards and related costs. According to one senior aide in Parliament, legislation was also introduced a few months ago that would pay the speaker more than the equivalent of $30,000 monthly to cover the same costs.
Salim Abdullah, an official in the Iraqi Consensus Front, said in an interview that he believed that Mr. Mashhadani would want to step down in the near future and that Sunni officials would hold discussions during the next two weeks about the speaker’s job.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/wo...st/20iraq.html
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