Iraq's Shiite cleric calls for strike against corruption

The Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called Friday for a two-day strike of government employees, along with a hunger strike, in protest against wide corruption and reluctant reform plan by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

In a statement issued by his office, Sadr urged Iraqi people, in particular his followers and government employees except security forces, to strike on next Sunday and Monday.

Sadr said that those employees, who will go on strike, must stay in front of their government offices, and only to work on emergency cases from outside the buildings of their offices, the statement said.

Sadr also called on all Iraqi people to go on hunger strike inside Sunni and Shiite mosques, churches and other houses of worship, as well as in cultural and social institutions, starting from Sept. 9, after the weekly Friday noon prayer, until the morning of Sept. 11, according to the statement.

Last year Abadi launched several package of reforms after massive demonstrations in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and several other south cities to protest against slack public services, power shortage and massive corruption.

Abadi's reform plan once gained popular support, but with the passing of time the reforms fell short to convince demonstrators who demanded Abadi to be more aggressive against the political parties that benefited from corruption and could reverse the reforms to their own good.

Sadr's move came after months of protests by Iraqis as well as legislators from various parties demanded an end to the quota system, which was created following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to control and divide Iraq's resources among political parties.

Some political blocs and politicians apparently have been resisting the reforms because there is a lack of trust among the political parties who see that such reforms, or part of them, are marginalizing their factions from the political scene which was originally built on power-sharing agreements.

A series of failed reform measures by Abadi have paralyzed Iraq's government as the country struggles to fight the Islamic State (IS) militant group, which seizes parts of territories in northern and western Iraq, and faces an economic crisis sparked in part by a plunge in global oil prices. Endit