Submission of the Motion to Impeach the Minister of Industry to the Parliamentary Board

The spokesperson of the Parliamentary Board stated that the motion to impeach the Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade has been submitted with 50 signatures to the Board. Meanwhile, ISNA news agency reported that the number of representatives signing the motion is 60. According to Mehr news agency, Behrouz Namati mentioned that the impeachment motion against Mohammad Shariatmadari will be referred to the Industries and Mines Commission for legal proceedings. He added that the impeachment of the Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade is mainly based on issues such as 'disorder in currency distribution for importers, violations in the field of car imports, and the continuation of problems faced by production and industrial units' and will be reviewed after legal procedures are completed. In this regard, ISNA reported that 60 members of parliament have signed the impeachment motion against Mohammad Shariatmadari. According to this report, the collection of signatures from representatives for the impeachment of Mohammad Shariatmadari, Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade, was completed on Tuesday in the open session of the parliament and referred to the Board with 14 main points. The signatories of the impeachment motion have accused him of 'failure to control and manage the market, resulting in rampant price increases and hoarding of goods', 'inadequate management of the supply of raw materials for production units leading to the closure and reduction of production capacity of thousands of industrial units and workshops, and the dismissal of hundreds of thousands of workers and engineers', and 'insufficient management of the rights of hand-woven carpet weavers, lack of full insurance coverage for carpet weavers, and weakness in maintaining the position of Iranian carpets in the global market.' Other points in the impeachment motion include 'failure to prevent overpricing of products from large industrial units that are somewhat dependent on the government, including steel and petrochemical industries', 'weak management in completing, optimizing, and enforcing laws in industrial parks and areas', and 'failure to implement the government's resolution in April 2018 for the complete implementation of tracking codes within two months, resulting in the waste of billions of dollars at the 4200 toman rate.' The impeachment representatives also pointed to other issues, including 'failure to fully perform legal duties in combating smuggling of goods and currency', 'failure to register all business licenses in the business license database as per Article 44 law', 'disregard for the implementation of a resistant economy', 'existence of corruption and rent-seeking in car imports and currency order registration', and 'lack of oversight on the automotive industry leading to overpricing, hoarding of cars, and market chaos.' 'Lack of transparency and weakness in oversight of IMIDRO activities', 'weak management in the proper exploitation of mines and obtaining full rights from mines', and 'failure to fully implement the programs and main points announced to the Islamic Consultative Assembly at the time of the vote of confidence' have also been stated as points in the impeachment motion against the Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade. According to ISNA, based on the internal regulations of the parliament, an impeachment must be submitted to the Board with at least 10 signatures. After that, the Board refers the matter to the relevant commission, and if the number of signatures drops below 10 after the commission's review, the matter is announced in the parliament, and the minister must appear within 10 days to respond. The impeachment motion against Mohammad Shariatmadari was referred to the Board on Tuesday at a time when, in recent days, with the vote of the representatives of the legislative branch, Masoud Karbasian was dismissed from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, and Ali Rabiei was dismissed from the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare. In this regard, the parliament representatives in the session on Tuesday were only satisfied with the answer regarding banking sanctions out of five questions they had about the economic situation and the severe depreciation of the rial, finding President Hassan Rouhani's answers to the other four questions unsatisfactory. In recent months, criticisms of the performance of Hassan Rouhani's economic team have increased. Nevertheless, he and his officials have defended the government's performance.