General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers has authorized this week, the Ministry of State for Provincial Affairs to conduct an applications study for the development of new provinces.
"The vision of the Ministry of State for Provincial Affairs is to turn Iraq into 30 provinces with the administrative and technical requirements that require the development of the provinces, as there are large geographical areas and there are provinces with significant economic potentials as well as significant human potentials so there must be a balance and an appropriate administrative and technician division ,” Mufti told “Shafaq News “.
 “The Ministry of State for Provincial Affairs is currently working on the processing of the study to convert some appropriate districts to provinces in the north , center, or south that has a certain percentage of population or geographical areas ."
"We will not go into the names of districts and areas which are proposed to be converted to provinces until the completion of the procedures for that district ,” Mufti added.
Tall Afar and Tuz Khurmato districts have demanded to turn them into independent provinces within the framework of Law 21 of 2008, which gives districts, counties and provinces the right to convert  according to specific controls .
The cabinet agreed last week on a request to transfer Halabja district in Sulaimaniyah province to an independent province.