BAGHDAD -- Using old-fashioned behind-the-scenes politicking, Iraq's parliamentary leaders pushed through three divisive laws yesterday that had been held up for months by bitter maneuvering between factions and, recently, threats to dissolve the legislative body.
The three laws are the 2008 budget, a law outlining the scope of provincial powers - a crucial aspect of Iraq's self-definition as a federal state - and an amnesty that will cover thousands of the detainees held in Iraqi jails.
They were put to a vote as a single package and passed yesterday afternoon.
"The Iraqi Parliament has approved the three laws, and this is the greatest achievement possible for the Iraqi people," said Adnan Dulaimi, the head of the National Accordance Front and a Sunni.
Khalid al-Attiya, the deputy speaker and a Shiite, beamed as he told reporters right after the vote that the laws had passed "unanimously."
Passage of the measures represents a significant achievement for the Iraqi Parliament, which on many days could not muster a quorum.
The approach of voting on the three laws together broke the logjam because it allowed every group to boast that it had a win. Leaders of the blocs - Shiite, Sunni and Kurd - realized that while no one of the laws could pass on its own, together, they offered something for each political constituency. So factions would swallow the measures they liked less in order to get the one they wanted.
The Kurds wanted the budget in its current form, which guarantees the regional government 17 percent of the country's revenues after subtracting the costs of federal ministries that serve the entire country, such as Foreign Affairs and Defense.
The Sunnis wanted the amnesty because about 80 percent of the more than 26,000 detainees in Iraqi jails are Sunnis. About half of all detainees have not been sentenced.
The Shiites want the provincial powers law because they want to be sure that substantial power rests in the hands of the provinces rather than in the central government.
After the laws are approved by the Presidency Council, in this case a pro forma step since all of the political blocs agreed to their passage, they will be published.
The particulars of the laws remained unclear in part because changes were made in the last minutes of the legislative process.
However, embedded in each of the measures are the same problems that created the controversy in the first place.
