Political disputes, livelihoods should be separated, says PM Barzani

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Political disputes should not be used to affect people’s livelihoods, the Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said on Thursday after pensioners experienced disruptions in their salary payments in Sulaimani.

“No entity or individual should prevent the distribution of salaries. People’s livelihood should not be used for political gains,” Prime Minister Masrour Barzani expressed in a statement

“Those obstructing the process should be held accountable in accordance with the law,” he added.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has continued to pay employee salaries despite difficult challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic and regional and international pressures, PM Barzani said, adding his government would continue to serve its citizens.

Approximately 1,000 Peshmerga veterans of the Aylul (September) and Gulan (May) revolutions in Sulaimani province on Thursday complained that the city’s banks stopped their payments.

The September and May Kurdish Revolutions represented two significant struggles, in Kurdish history, against the Iraqi regimes of the 1960s and 1970s.

“They told us there is no salary,” Mohammad Hussein, a pensioner, who had waited for hours in front of a bank in the city, told Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday.

The province requires 400 billion Iraqi dinars (nearly $302 million) per month to cover its expenses and salary distribution, according to figures reviewed by Kurdistan 24.

Additional reporting by Kurdistan 24 Sulaimani Correspondent Niyan Barzan