Baghdad, Iraq – Nukhsha Nasih, the current mayor of Halabja, has been appointed as the acting governor of the province, according to a reliable source who spoke on Friday.
The decision was signed by the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani, on Thursday. Nasih is set to officially take on her new role on March 20.
Samko Salar, the director of Bamo sub-district in Halabja, will succeed Nasih as mayor, following a proposal from the district commissioner’s office, the source confirmed.
Kawa Ali, former deputy governor of Halabja and now a member of the Kurdistan Parliament, shared that a request for Nasih’s appointment was submitted to the Ministry of Interior in January to be passed on to the Council of Ministers for approval.
Nasih is replacing Azad Tofiq, who is retiring under the government’s new retirement policy. Previously, government employees had a retirement age of 63, but a new directive issued by Barzani in January lowered it to 60. As Tofiq is in his early sixties, this change necessitated his retirement, resulting in the vacancy that Nasih has now filled.
Born in Halabja in 1978, Nasih served as the director of Byara sub-district in Hawraman, Halabja province from 2008 to 2015. In March 2016, she was appointed mayor of Halabja as a candidate from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
