Iraqi MP promises PM a poem if he develops Baghdad like Erbil
Since 2003, the Kurdistan Region had extensively developed with a limited budget while the rest of Iraq still suffers despite the huge budget available, said an Iraqi member of parliament on Tuesday.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Since 2003, the Kurdistan Region had extensively developed with a limited budget while the rest of Iraq still suffers despite the huge budget available, said an Iraqi member of parliament on Tuesday.
Mash’an al-Jabouri, a Sunni Arab member of the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad, on his official Facebook account, wrote he was impressed by the “huge development” in the Kurdistan Region regarding construction and services.
“I wonder how [the Kurdistan Region] managed to achieve all this development while their budget share was only 17 percent,” the MP wrote.
In his Facebook post, he attached several pictures of Kurdistan in general and Erbil in particular, the capital of the Region.
“If any Iraqi Governor or Prime Minister can make Baghdad or any other cities of Iraq like Erbil, Duhok, or [Sulaimani] regarding development, I promise I will proudly write a praising and beautiful poem for him,” Jabouri added.
He also noted he was proud of the progress and achievements in the Kurdistan Region following his visit to the area.
The Kurdistan Region is home to over 1.8 million refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who fled the threat of the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.
Moreover, the current number of displaced persons and refugees makes up 29 percent of the Region’s total population.
In the past years, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani repeatedly complained the KRG received less than 17 percent of the budget share from Baghdad.
Since 2014, the federal government of Iraq blockaded the budget share of the Region, accusing them of selling oil independently, a claim the KRG denied.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany