Baghdad -
The head of the Popular Mobilization Authority, Faleh Al-Fayyad, announced on Tuesday, February 7, the completion of the draft amendment to the Mobilization Authority law and the draft service and retirement law for the members of the authority, which will be presented to parliament for a vote, stressing that these measures would guarantee the rights and duties and regulate the work of the authority.
This comes at a time when the Commission indicated that many members of the Commission had been accepted into military academies, hoping to establish a military academy for the Popular Mobilization Forces, similar to the academies of the Ministries of Defense and Interior, according to him.
Al-Fayyad revealed that he had completed preparing a draft to amend the crowd law (Al-Jazeera)
crowd law
The Iraqi Parliament approved the draft law of the Popular Mobilization Authority in November 2016 with a majority of members, amid the withdrawal of the Sunni Iraqi forces coalition at the time, which included representatives from the six Sunni governorates, so that the debate continues about the work of the Authority, its duties and entitlements 7 years after the law was enacted.
The Popular Mobilization Forces were actually established after the Islamic State's invasion of Iraq in June 2014, when the supreme Shiite authority in Iraq, Ali al-Sistani, issued a fatwa of "competent jihad" with the aim of confronting the expansion of the organization in the country.
According to the law - which consists of 3 articles related to regulating the work of the Popular Mobilization Authority - the crowd is considered part of the Iraqi armed forces, and is linked to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (the Prime Minister), however, it classified the Mobilization Authority as an independent armed formation consisting of a leadership, staff, ranks and combat brigades .
Despite the legislation of the law, it seems that it was not sufficient in its first form to address the problems in organizing the work of the Commission, according to the Deputy Chief of Staff of the PMF for Operations Affairs, Yasser Al-Issawi, who explained - in a press statement in the middle of last year - that the PMF does not have private camps yet, just as the leaders of The crowd and its more than 169,000 fighters did not assume their basic role and privileges, which necessitates amendments to the Commission's law, as he put it.
About 7 years after the establishment of the Mobilization Commission, questions arise about the importance of amending the law, the necessities that necessitate the establishment of a military academy for the commission, and what the amendment of the law can represent for the crowd, as well as whether the amendment of the law will face the same sensitivity that was present among the bitter political forces. The first.
Muhannad Al-Aqabi: Amending the crowd law does not raise the sensitivity of a particular party as much as it seeks to organize (Al-Jazeera Net)
Amending the law
Regarding the amendments, the spokesman for the Mobilization Authority, Muhannad Al-Aqabi, explained that they are related to the legal structure, retirement organizations, and establishing military ranks for its members, including positions and the structure of the body in its general form, in order to place the crowd within the framework of the state and give it government privacy, as he put it.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, he confirmed that the amendment of the law was carried out with experts from the Ministries of Defense and the Interior, and with the participation of the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Planning and other concerned parties and specialists in the law, with the aim of it being similar to the defense and interior laws, and for the crowd institution to be in the same legal context, indicating that the matter It does not arouse the sensitivity of a particular party as much as it seeks to organize the crowd.
Commenting on this, a member of the Parliamentary Legal Committee and head of the Sanad Bloc, Mortada Al-Saadi, said that the law passed in 2016 was accompanied by failures in implementation by the relevant authority in the state, pointing to the need to complete and legislate this law in order to regulate the duties of the crowd and its moral and material entitlements.
Muhammad Al-Muhammadi: The issue of establishing an academy for the crowd has not yet been raised to be approved (Al-Jazeera Net)
legal point of view
Al-Saadi explained - in his speech to Al-Jazeera Net - that all laws are subject to amendment by Parliament by virtue of the law, so there is no dispute that there should be an amendment to a draft law put forward by the government or the crowd, or even by representatives in Parliament, stressing that the importance lies in legislation. A law that gives adequate space to the body.
Commenting on this, a member of the Parliament's Security and Defense Committee, Muhammad al-Muhammadi, says, "Until now, there is nothing about the law in Parliament, but the Security and Defense Committee is working on enacting a set of laws related to security and military institutions, such as the intelligence and national security law," and that these laws are still needed for revisions, and that they in Parliament agree with any law that serves the interest of the country.
In addition, legal expert Haider Al-Soufi confirmed - to Al-Jazeera Net - the possibility of amending the law, provided that it does not conflict with other laws, such as the Unified Retirement Law, explaining the necessity of establishing a special retirement directorate within the Mobilization Authority that works as a link between the authority and the Public Retirement Department.
Military Academy
Meanwhile, points of view differed regarding the efforts of the Mobilization Forces to establish a military academy, which the military expert Alaa al-Nashu considered a legal and constitutional violation because the constitution does not recognize any military formations outside the framework of the military institution represented by the Ministry of Defense, which is linked to the highest military institution in the country, which is Army Staff Presidency.
The legal violation lies in the fact that the Hashd does not have constitutional powers, considering it a body and not a ministry, as Al-Nasoo’ explains, indicating that approving a law for the crowd is contrary to the constitution, given that the formation of the body is not subject to military laws and regulations approved by public and private military law, and that its members and supervisors They do not belong to the military establishment and do not hold any legally recognized military degrees and ranks, as he put it.
In his interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Nashua emphasized that the formation of a military academy necessarily requires government recognition to be enacted by law, as the military certificate held by the officer is equivalent to a bachelor's degree in military sciences.
A member of the Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee returns, saying that the Academy of the Ministry of Defense fulfills the purpose, and that there are other regulatory controls that apply to all military institutions, pointing out that everything that is proposed is considered from the positive and negative aspects, and accordingly the issue of establishing an academy for the crowd has not been Submitted to be approved.
Adnan Al-Kinani: The establishment of a military academy for the crowd will burden it (Al-Jazeera Net)
plurality of opinions
As for the punitive, he showed that the mobilization law is similar to the defense and interior laws.
Accordingly, it is possible to establish a special academy for the Mobilization Forces, similar to the Ministry of Interior and Defense, which have private military academies, especially since the combat classes of the Mobilization Forces may differ somewhat from the two ministries, wondering at the same time, "Why did the Ministry of Interior not suffice with the Defense Academy?"
Noting that experts from the interior and defense will be relied upon in the event of the establishment of this academy.
For his part, military expert Adnan Al-Kinani believes - in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net - that there is no need for a private college to train and qualify officers in the crowd, indicating that this body can use the military college, in addition to that establishing a private academy will burden the crowd with what it requires of trainers and teachers. , according to him.
crowd formations
Although the deputy chief of staff of the crowd, Yasser Al-Issawi, revealed that the number of the crowd's members is about 169,000, the spokesman for the commission avoided - during his talk to Al-Jazeera - going into the details of the military formations.
According to a study published by historian and researcher in security and strategic affairs Hisham Al-Hashemi in early July 2020, days before his assassination, the crowd consists of about 119 factions, including 67 Shiite factions, 4 of which are affiliated with the Shiite reference in Najaf, compared to 43 Sunni factions and 9 other factions. For minorities, while the number of Hashd members is about 165 thousand fighters, of whom 110 thousand are Shiites, 45 thousand are Sunnis, and 10 thousand are minorities.