BBC Monitoring

Iraqi president's party said to redeploy officials

The Iraqi president's party will redeploy officials "at different levels for different reasons", the website of independent Hawlati newspaper reported on 11 September.

The report quoted a senior anonymous Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) official as saying "the PUK will make a number of changes at different levels for different reasons".

The source said that the PUK had launched inquiries against some officials and dismissed them for talking to the media, dereliction of duty and weak performance.

The report said Arsalan Bayiz would be appointed as the head of the party's media office, while Sa'di Ahmad Pirah was recommended to take up the post of the head of party's office in Arbil.

The report also said that some of the party cadres who lost in the party elections would be appointed to new posts, including posts at the follow-up and accountability office.

The report quoted another source as saying: "Azad Jundiyani is dismissed becau! se he is not a Political Bureau member since the head of the media [office] should be a Political Bureau member."

The report said the head of the PUK bloc in the Kurdistan Region parliament, Uthman Bani Marani, might be replaced with Kwestan. Bani Marani told Hawlati: "The reason for my dismissal is obvious; it is related to the oil and gas law [debate]. We postponed it in the parliament to discuss it [at length], but the PUK and KDP Political Bureaus were not happy with this."

Meanwhile, the former head of PUK's Chamchamal office, Sirwan Kwekha Najim, said an inquiry was set up against him "because I criticised the PUK".

Source: Hawlati website, Sulaymaniyah, in Sorani Kurdish 11 Sep 07