BAGHDAD, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday suspended the minister of electricity over deterioration in power supply amid protests against lack of jobs and basic services.
A brief statement by Abadi's office said that Qasim al-Fahdawi has been suspended by Abadi "until the end of the investigation" into the reasons behind the deterioration of the power supply.
The suspension came after about two weeks of demonstrations in many cities in Iraq's central and southern provinces despite a series of measures taken by Abadi aimed at quelling the street anger.
The measures included allocating 3.5 trillion Iraqi dinars (about 2.9 billion U.S. dollars) to carry out several major projects for public services, such as electricity and water facilities, in addition to providing thousands of jobs in the government institutions.
Meanwhile, Abadi, also the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, issued an order of high alert for the security forces in the central and southern provinces in response to the protests.
The demonstrators accused the influential political parties of being behind the widespread corruption that led to high rates of unemployment and failure in rehabilitation of the country's electricity, water and other basic services.
