Al-Fadheela Party Calls for Oil Minister's Resignation

Al-Fadheela Islamic party called on the government to fire the oil minister, Mohammed Bahrul Uloom. In a declaration read by party spokesman Sheikh Hassan al-Shummary, the party said the minister should resign because he has fallen short in his mission to establish an independent oil policy. It noted that Iraq is still paying 60 billion dollars annually to import oil from abroad. Shummary added that the minister did not comply with the party’s position that oil prices should not be raised and has not eliminated corruption in his ministry. (Uloom resigned from his post after the government decided to hike fuel prices but returned as oil minister last week.