December 16, 2022
Transport Minister Rostam Qasemi has resigned, ostensibly because of ill health but only after publication of photos showing him vacationing in Malaysia with his girlfriend, who was not wearing a headscarf.
However, the health explanation was not a mere excuse. Qasemi died of cancer at the age of 58 December 8, just 16 days after resigning.
And what appears to have died along with Qasemi was the Raisi Administration’s campaign pledge to build 1 million residences each year.
Qasemi, a retired Pasdar general who gained national fame as oil minister under President Mahmud Ahmadi-nejad, had come under professional criticism for coming nowhere near the administration goal of building one million new homes each year, which comes under the mandate of his ministry, transport and urban development. He was also reportedly suffering from some form of cancer.
So, there was perhaps ample justification for his resignation. But he did not act until photos of him and his then girlfriend, now widow, circulated on the internet.
The photo dates from 2011, two years after his first wife’s death, but were only circulated in October.
Qasemi was approved for his post in August of last year, when Raisi took over the presidency, with huge support from the Majlis. He received the votes of 94 percent of the deputies, the fourth largest margin given any of Raisi’s cabinet nominees.
Qasemi was the second of Raisi’s cabinet ministers to resign. Labor Minister Hojatollah Abdol-Maleki quit after 10 months on the job and much criticism over the volume of labor strikes during his tenure.
Qasemi was succeeded in the cabinet by Mehrdad Bazrpash, 42, who easily passed muster in the Majlis, being approved on a vote of 187 to 64 with seven abstentions.
Bazrpash may have won some points with the Majlis for honesty, as he said building one million residences a year over the four-year presidential term was impossible. He said that at an average of $20,000 per unit, that would cost $80 billion over four years or almost double the annual budget for the entire government.
Bazrpash said there are still 240,000 unfinished housing units and suggested it would make more sense to first find the resources to finish them.
