Iraq PM takes big pay cut as West Asia protests rage
Iraq's Prime Minister has pledged to halve his salary in a move that appears aimed at placating frustrations over mounting inequality and poor basic services, as protests rage around the. West Asia.
Nuri al-Maliki made the promise in a statement released late on Friday, as members of Parliament debate the federal budget, and after religious leaders warned Iraq was not immune to protests spreading across the region simply because it is a democracy.
"I will reduce my salary by 50 per cent as President of the Cabinet and return it to the state treasury starting from February," he said.
Mr Maliki said the move was intended to "reduce the differences between the salaries of employees of state institutions, and to help reduce differences in all of society."
Mr Maliki has yet to publicly release his official salary, but he is believed to receive around $350,000 a year.
His statement came as clerics across the country warned that Iraqi leaders had to do more to fight corruption and promote social justice to avert Tunisia- or Egypt-style uprisings.
"All governments, even democracies, must study the main reasons that have led to this public anger against their regimes, which started in Tunisia," said Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai during on Friday prayers in the shrine city of Karbala.
"A lot has changed in Iraq. But there is no social justice," said Karbalai, the representative in Karbala of top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. "The political blocs in Iraq must give priority to public issues over private interests."
His warnings, and similar ones from other religious leaders, came as protests in Egypt against President Hosni Mubarak reached a 12th day, while smaller protests have been held in Yemen and Jordan after the ouster of veteran Tunisian strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the Southern Iraqi town of Al-Hamza on Wednesday to demand better basic services, with police opening fire to disperse the crowd.
Similar protests calling for an end to draconian power rationing took place across central and southern Iraq last summer.
Mr Maliki also pointedly noted in his statement that his salary reduction came as MPs debated a nearly $80-billion spending programme that the country's cabinet approved on December 1, but has yet to be finalised.
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