Parliament is seeking legal grounds to authorize al-Kadhimi's government to defer the food security bill

Shafaq News/ Mustafa al-Kadhimi's caretaker government might be able to defer an emergency bill on food security and development amid talks about a consensus inside the parliament, a source revealed on Sunday.

"The government might be able to defer the bill if it obtains an official approval from the parliament," the source told Shafaq News Agency.

"The majority of the forces condones this step in order to facilitate the passing of the bills relevant to people's lives," the source continued, "the food security is not incompatible with the general budget law. It only expedites the necessary allocations to fund food, medicine, and energy requirements."

Legal expert Ali al-Tamimi suggested that "the parliament might grant the caretaker government the right to defer the general budget of 2022 exclusively, given it is relevant to the food security of the Iraqis; a top priority to any caretaker government."

"To grant the government such authorization, an absolute parliamentary majority (50%+1) is required. Of course, the authorization shall be exclusive to the general budget bill. Moreover, the new budget shall adopt the concluding accounts of the previous budget in accordance with the law of financial management and public debt No. 6 of 2019, Articles 62, 5, and 61 of the Constitution, 12 and 13 of the law of financial management and public debt No. 6 of 2019, and Articles 128 to 138 of the parliament's internal law."