The Iraqi parliament warned that a court ruling of linking the central bank, election commissions and other independent bodies to the cabinet is a threat to the country 's democracy and overseas savings, an official news paper said on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.
Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi met with Faraj al-Haidari, chief of Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), and discussed the risk of the Supreme Court's decision to put those independent commissions under the supervision of the cabinet instead of the parliament, the state-run al-Sabah newspaper quoted a statement by Nujaifi's office as saying.
"Nujaifi and Faraj al-Haidari discussed the dangers of this decision, the threat it poses to the democratic regime in Iraq, its impact on the independence of the IHEC, and its serious consequences on the future of the political regime in Iraq," the statement said.
Nujaifi also met with the central bank governor Sinan al- Shebibi, who warned that Iraq may lose its assets abroad due to the court ruling, the newspaper said.
"Iraq will lose its ability to protect its savings overseas due to this decision, as the independence of the bank was and is still the only guarantee to protect the financial resources of the bank from being confiscated by international creditors," the paper quoted Shebibi as saying.
On Jan. 18, the Iraqi supreme court put several key independent bodies in Iraq, including the central bank and IHEC under the supervision of the cabinet instead of the parliament, saying that such bodies have to be part of the executive authority rather than the legislative one because their performance is executive in nature.
The court's move was criticized by the political blocs and the bodies themselves as harmful to the independent bodies' nonpartizan reputation and the country's assets abroad