Pensioners’ petition to the Federal Supreme Court

Dr. Yousef Mohammed
Today 23- 11- 2022, thank God the Federal Supreme Court issued its final decision on the case of pensioners in the Kurdistan Region and ruled: (First: unconstitutionality of the Kurdistan Regional Government pension law No. 27 of 2006 repealed; This is a great victory for the worthy pensioners of the region who have devoted decades of their lives to serve the citizens of the region and have the right to live a dignified life.
The current Iraqi pension law is much better in many ways than the old Iraqi law, which has been repealed but was still unconstitutionally applied in the region. For example, the minimum pension in the amended Law No. 9 of 2014 in force in Iraq (500,000 five hundred thousand dinars), but in the repealed Law No. 27 of 2006 and the guidelines of the region (220,000 two hundred and twenty thousand dinars). Service, taking into account the increase in living standards in Iraq, paying 12 months of full salary with allowances as the final reward for those who have served for 25 years or more and many other differences.
About six months ago, we discussed the idea of filing this lawsuit in the Federal Supreme Court with a number of pensioners (from the Kurdistan Pensioners Union) and several young lawyers The lawsuit was filed by the lawyers on 8-9-2022 in the Federal Supreme Court. The court held two hearings on the case in the presence of the representatives of the petitioners’ pensioners and their lawyers on (19-10-2022) and (8-11-2022), without the presence of the defendants (Masrour Barzani and Awat Sheikh Janab). and was appointed by the Chief Justice to-day to decide the case.
According to Article 94 of the Iraqi Constitution, the decisions of the Federal Supreme Court are binding on all authorities. According to Article 36 of the Rules of Procedure of the Federal Supreme Court No. 1 of 2022, failure to implement the decisions of the Federal Supreme Court will subject the owner to criminal liability. According to Article 37-1 of the same Rules, the decisions of this Court (except the penal texts) shall be implemented from the date of their issuance, except in the cases mentioned in the decisions. In other words, the Kurdistan Regional Government must amend the salaries of all pensioners in accordance with the Pension Law No. 9 of 2014, and calculate the new salary for them from today.
It should be noted that in the text of today’s court decision and based on the petition we had prepared,
There is a way to recover the rights of employees and pensioners in the issues of arrears, forced and illegal salary deductions, and stop the illegal promotion of employees.
We would like to thank our fellow lawyers who made the case much richer and more respectable by reviewing it, as well as those who gave us financial advice. Many thanks also to Mr. Bashdar Hassan who volunteered to participate in the case and, together with the representatives of the pensioners, attended the court hearings, and thanks to our friend who paid for two other lawyers in Baghdad.
Today we are happy to participate in making the hearts of tens of thousands of proud pensioners of the region happy by trying to restore their deprived rights in this era that unfortunately in the region and surrounding areas The Kurdistan Region, the martyrdom of dozens of civilian demonstrators in Iranian Kurdistan by the armed forces of that country, and the invasion of Syrian Kurdistan by the Turkish state.