Shafaq News- Nineveh

Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on Monday rejected legal challenges to a Nineveh Provincial Council decision lifting construction restrictions in Qaza Fakhra and Jliyokhan, two areas in the Nineveh Plains east of Mosul, political adviser to the council Humam Al-Salim told Shafaq News.

Al-Salim said the ruling upheld the council's measure, which he described as ending years of restrictions that had affected thousands of families and property owners.

The court had previously postponed the case until Sept. 7 at the request of lawmakers Waad El-Kadu and Duraid Jameel, who appeared as plaintiffs and sought additional time to respond to the defense presented on behalf of the Provincial Council chairman and Nineveh governor.

The dispute followed a legal challenge brought by Qusay Abbas, a lawmaker representing the Shabak community, an ethnic and religious minority concentrated in the Nineveh Plains. The suit accused the council of seeking to engineer demographic change around Mosul, including in Qaza Fakhra and Jliyokhan, after it voted in June to authorize the Mosul municipality to subdivide and distribute residential plots and issue building permits in expansion zones.

Read more: Nineveh Council lifts building restrictions on Mosul outskirts