MP charges Iraq’s parliament speaker with ignoring demand for his questioning

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Legislature of Iraq’s State of Law Alliance, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Ali al-Shilah, has said on Saturday that the Parliament Speaker, Usama al-Nujeify, had ignored a demand by a number of MPs to question him on the background of his recent statements calling for a Sunni Region in the country.   “Nujeify has ignored a demand by 75 MPs to question him today (Saturday) and did not place it on the Parliament session’s schedule,” Shilah told a news conference he held at the Parliament’s building.   Shilah described Nujeify’s statements during a recent visit to the United States as “having been harmful to the Iraqi people, their national unity and the Sunni sect, who had not thought of secession from the other Iraqi sects.”   “The Parliament Speaker’s insists on using  sectarian discrimination, in counter to Article 14 of the Constitution, confirming that Iraqis are equal, without any discrimination, whether in the race, sect, opinion or conviction,” he said.     Iraq’s Parliament Speaker, Usama al-Nujeify, on Thursday has denied calling for the establishment of a Sunni Region in Iraq, during his recent visit for Washington.   “I can’t accept the establishment of Regions on sectarian basis, but they can be set up on geographic basis, but not now; and I did not call for that during my visit to Washington,” Nujiefy told a news conference in Baghdad, adding that “the formation of such Regions is a constitutional right, but it should be studied carefully, and what had happened was that part of my statement was cut.”   SKH (TR)/SR 516