Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati must appear before parliament within 10 days to defend his performance during an impeachment session called over his failure to address problems besetting the sector.
Akbar Ranjbarzadeh, a member of the Majlis Presiding Board, announced the receipt of the impeachment motion against the minister at an open session of parliament on Wednesday, ICANA reported.
According to him, 10 lawmakers have signed the motion, which is the minimum number of signatures required to call a vote of confidence.
Under the Constitution, lawmakers can impeach a minister when they deem it necessary.
The minister must appear in parliament within 10 days after the submission of the motion to answer questions raised by legislators and give explanation about his or her performance to secure a vote of confidence from parliament, which has the power to dismiss ministers.
Reasons for Impeachment
Hojjati has faced criticism over his failure to reduce unnecessary imports of agriculture products to protect local farmers, inability to find new export markets and failure to promote modern cultivation techniques and technologies to preserve natural resources.
He is also under fire for his lack of plans for investment in infrastructure and machinery, disregard for inflation in pricing staple foods such as wheat, insufficient support for the country's nomads, slow progress in tackling the issue of dust storms and limited support for exporters of agriculture products.
No exact date has been set yet for the impeachment of the agriculture minister.
Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare Ali Rabiei and Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi have also been summoned to parliament and will be impeached next Sunday and Tuesday respectively, IRNA quoted Ranjbarzadeh as saying on Wednesday.
Their summons to parliament underline mounting frustration with deadly accidents in the transport sector.
