Second Question from Representatives to the President Referred to the Economic Commission of the Parliament

The head and spokesperson of the Economic Commission of the Parliament announced that the second question from representatives to the President has been referred to this commission with 100 signatures. According to Fars News Agency, Mohammad Reza Pourabrahimi, the head of the Economic Commission, announced on Tuesday, March 7, that the main issues of the question to the President are 'the government's delay in seriously combating smuggling of goods and currency,' 'continuation of banking sanctions,' 'unemployment,' 'economic recession,' 'devaluation of the national currency and fluctuations in the currency market.' Rahim Zare, spokesperson for the Economic Commission, also announced that a letter has been sent to the President to introduce his representatives for answering these questions. In recent months, more than 76 members of Parliament had raised a question to Hassan Rouhani regarding financial and credit institutions, and the Parliament's board referred this question to the Economic Commission for review. According to the Parliament's regulations, the President appoints representatives to respond to the questions of the legislative representatives in the commission meeting. If the questioning representatives are not satisfied after the President's representatives respond, the question will be raised in the open session of the Parliament. Previously, the head of the Economic Commission had announced that a meeting of this commission to respond to questions from representatives about financial and credit institutions was held on Sunday, February 18. In this meeting, Valiollah Seif, the head of the Central Bank, Masoud Karbasian, the Minister of Economy, Mohammad Nahavandian, the economic deputy of the President, and Hossein Ali Amiri, the parliamentary deputy of the President, were present. According to Mr. Pourabrahimi, based on the Parliament's regulations, the Economic Commission's report on this matter will be submitted to the Parliament's board within a week, and if the number of questioning representatives still meets the legal quorum, the question will be raised in the Parliament's open session. A significant number of financial and credit institutions in Iran have failed to meet their obligations to investors due to bankruptcy or embezzlement, and the defrauded investors have repeatedly protested in various parts of Iran. However, officials of Hassan Rouhani's government claim that this problem arose during the previous administration and that the government has paid the money of individuals who deposited less than 200 million tomans in these institutions. Additionally, Hassan Rouhani cited a 'wrong ruling' by a judge in Mashhad as the reason for the problem faced by the Caspian financial and credit institution. Mr. Rouhani stated in Parliament on December 10 that '25 percent of the country's monetary market was under the control of six violating cooperatives' and that they 'decided on profits whenever they wanted and disrupted the currency, gold, and real estate markets as they pleased.' In nearly four decades of the Islamic Republic, a question has only been raised to the President of Iran once during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency. The Islamic Consultative Assembly also voted for the political incompetence of Abolhassan Banisadr, the first President of Iran, thus removing him from office before the end of his term.