Of the 270 votes cast, 145 MPs voted in favor of the impeachment motion to dismiss the minister, 110 voted against it, and 15 abstained.
According to the Constitution, an impeached minister who fails to obtain a vote of confidence from the parliament will be dismissed.
The MPs who sought to remove Faraji-Dana had cited the cancellation of the scholarships of a number of Ph.D. students, the adoption of a new mechanism to appoint university chancellors, the failure to deal properly with illegal political activities at universities, and the appointment of a number of people who were involved in the unrest which occurred after the 2009 presidential election to key academic posts during the science minister's nine-month tenure as the reasons for their motion to oust him.
Before the impeachment motion was put to a vote, Faraji-Dana delivered a speech in which he defended his performance and said that he had tried to act in line with the Supreme Leader's guidelines to bring vitality to universities.
He also said that the number of protests staged by students at universities had considerably decreased in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21.
Faraji-Dana criticized certain people for trying to give the impression that academics are against the system.
He cited Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli's recent remarks, in which he said that a calm atmosphere currently pervades at universities.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Faraji-Dana rejected the criticism that the country's scientific progress had slowed down during his term in office and said that the number of scientific papers by Iranian academics published in reputable journals had significantly increased over the past eight months.
In addition, a number of MPs spoke in favor of and against the impeachment motion.
President Hassan Rouhani did not attend the parliamentary session to defend the science minister, but in an address to a number of people in Ardebil, he said, 'I wish I had been able to attend the impeachment session to openly defend the conscientious scholar.'
First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Vice President for Parliamentary Affairs Majid Ansari, Atomic Energy Agency of Iran Director Ali Akbar Salehi, and a number of other senior administration officials also attended the impeachment session.
Najafi appointed as caretaker science minister
In a decree issued on the same day, President Rouhani thanked Faraji-Dana for his efforts during his tenure and appointed Mohammad Ali Najafi as caretaker science minister.
Najafi had previously served as the director of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization during the Rouhani administration.
In a meeting with a number of Islamic scholars and seminary students and teachers in Ardebil, Rouhani asked university students, professors, and intellectuals to respect the MPs' decision to dismiss the science minister.
Entities 0 Name: Faraji-Dana Count: 5 1 Name: Rouhani Count: 3 2 Name: Najafi Count: 2 3 Name: Ardebil Count: 2 4 Name: Ali Akbar Salehi Count: 1 5 Name: Research and Technology Minister Reza Faraji-Dana Count: 1 6 Name: Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli Count: 1 7 Name: Mohammad Javad Zarif Count: 1 8 Name: Atomic Energy Agency of Iran Count: 1 9 Name: Mohammad Ali Najafi Count: 1 10 Name: Jahangiri Count: 1 11 Name: TEHRAN Count: 1 12 Name: Cultural Heritage , Tourism and Handicrafts Organization Count: 1 13 Name: Hassan Rouhani Count: 1 14 Name: Majid Ansari Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1pKJodm Title: Iran MPs dismiss science minister Description: Iran's parliament has voted to dismiss the science minister, dealing a blow to reformist President Hassan Rouhani. The motion to sack Reza Faraji-Dana, whose responsibilities included the country's universities, was backed by 145 of the 270 lawmakers present. Conservatives had been angered by his decision to let students expelled from university after the anti-government unrest in 2009 return to campus.
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