Moqtada preparing to meet with Adherents of the Mahdi re complaints about the Najaf authorities

Azzaman, sandwiched in an unrelated story about inaction respecting the recent suspicious fires at the Central Bank and elsewhere, says:

An authoritative source in the Sadrist trend said Moqtada al-Sadr is preparing to meet with a representative of the Mahdawiyya movement (Mahdists, general name for the groups focused on the appearance of the 12th Imam) that have been asking for a curtailment of the role of the Najaf marjia [authority, a collective word for the Najaf authorities of whom the most powerful is Sistani] in connection with the accusations repeatedly made by the Maliki government and its PR and security branches--destructive accusations that need to be fought. The source said Al-Sadr didn't spell out the form these discussions will take, but said he is preparing to accept the request of one of the spokesmen for the Adherents of the Imam Mahdi, made on Al-Sharqiyya TV. Recall that Al-Sadr himself has begun studies in the Najaf Hawza to complete the studies necessary to himself obtain the title of marjia, studies that could take several years.

The state of play seems to be that the government continues to spin conspiracy accusations against the Mahdawiyya movement as a whole. What makes this a little ambiguous is that a major feature of the Mahdist ideology is opposition to the influence of the Najaf authorities, so some of this could amount to Najaf McCarthyism, if you will pardon the expression. The Mahdists say that kind of fixed institutional intermediation is unnecessary and harmful, because knowledge comes either directly by revelation, or via the precursors of the twelfth Imam. Al-Sadr was probably referring to this problem when he said immediately after the Ashura violence that Iraq needs a "professional" intelligence agency, suggesting the current system is sectarian and anti-Mahdist.

On another topic Azzaman reports on its website in English that the Iraqi "government" has decided to end the food-ration program in June of this year, over the objections of the Finance Ministry which says this is a bad idea. The reporter says the government decision was taken pursuant to an agreement with the World Bank. Experts are quoted with unsurprising comments to the effect this is going to hurt the unemployed, in a country where the official unemployment rate is 40%.

I haven't seen this reported in any of the papers in Arabic, or anywhere else in any language, for that matter. If it's true it is a major story, reflecting ongoing pressure from the global powers that be for the application of IMF economic orthodoxy right up to the gates of hell, if you will pardon the expression. Has anyone seen anything about this? Anywhere?