Iraqi Council of Representatives: legislation after the end of the Jurisdiction date of the legislator

Iraqi Council of Representatives: legislation after the end of the Jurisdiction date of the legislator

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Shatha Khalil *
President of the Republic of Iraq Fuad Masum issued on July 18 a presidential decree stipulating the transfer of 328 parliamentary deputies from the third parliamentary session to retirement.
This came in accordance with the law of the House of Representatives No. (13) of 2018, which stipulates the referral of all members of the House of Representatives for the third parliamentary session of the (328) deputies to the retirement , starting with the deputy Ibtisam Hisham Abdul Hussain and ending with the deputy Ares Abdullah Ahmed Mahmoud, from the date of the first of the current July 2018 .
This is revealed by the legal expert, “Tariq Harb” referring to the legislation of a new law by the Iraqi Council of Representatives , explaining that the Parliament undertook the legislation of the law months ago and it has not been published in the Iraqi Official Gazette – newspaper number (4499) – except on the day (16/7/2018 ), which includes “the new law of the House of Representatives No. (13) for the year (2018),” adding that the law has not been mentioned in detail in the stages of its study , preparation and discussion , not even in the stages of its legislation , all these details were done in mysterious circumstances and in secrecy that did not have a legal justification, and the House of Representatives did not approve it, or determine the date of issuance during the constitutional period, before the election process, as stated in Article (73) of this law, which indicated that the date of its issuance was on the first of July of this year (2018), that is after the elections and the end of the period of constitutional authority of the Council.
He goes beyond than this to say that the purpose of selecting the council for the specific date of enactment of this law lies in several reasons: to ensure that the position of the members of the Council is  not affected by the elections, as well as to grant themselves many additional privileges, as it was stated in the article (13) of the law, which determines “calculating the service of the member of the House of Representatives during the parliamentary session of (15) years, regardless of the duration of his real service,” stressing that these procedures violate the requirements contained in the law of retirement, which requires that the minimum years of the actual service should be no less than (15) years for the grant of retirement, and to obtain a pension.

Harb pointed out that these additional privileges, which the members of the Council have enacted for themselves in this law, contravene the provisions of the Pension Law, which enhances the payment of pension rights when the member reaches the age of 50 years while the new parliamentary law decides to spend half of the rights of pension even If the member does not reach the age of (50) years, however , if reached this age , he deserves full pension rights , meaning that the deputy is better than the ordinary retiree as it was not required from him the completion of 15 years of service and not required to reach the age of 50 in order to deserve the pension benefits as it was required from the ordinary retiree , noting that Article 8 of the new law decides that the deputy is free to return to his post, contrary to the general rule that requires a vacant job degree and a financial allocation. The deputy under this law returns to his previous job or receives a vacant job degree and a financial allocation even if there is no job degree and there is no financial allocation.
The following is a summary of the legal article (13):
1. Subject to Article 8 of this Law, which provides for the issuance of a presidential decree in which the President of the Council, his deputies and the members of the Council shall retire according to the accounting equation contained in the Unified Retirement Law No. 9 of 2014, or any law replacing it.
2. The years of pension service covered by item I above shall not be less than fifteen years. If it is less, the applicant for the pension shall pay the retirement deductions for every year he needs to reach the minimum retirement years, the percentage is 25% of his salary per month for the added period.
3. Subject to item II of this Article, a person who has not attained the age of fifty years shall be entitled to obtain half of the pension rights of his peers in the years of service until he reaches the statutory retirement age of 50 years.
Harb added during the course of his legal refutation of Article 13 and the illegal privileges of the Parliament, as he pointed out that Article 6 gave the deputy the right to sue before judicial bodies , while article 15 gave him the right to issue books to all parties in the State contrary to the general rule in parliaments, which indicates that the books and parliamentary correspondence should be through the Office of the presidency of the Council only and each deputy does not have office and correspondence, and it is an expansion of powers significantly, and Harb concluded to call the Prime Minister or the relevant authorities to file suit before the Federal Supreme Court to overturn the financial provisions contained in the law for not taking the opinion of the government in that and because the Council of ministers did not prepare this law .
Regarding the retirement law, “Harb” said that the unified pension law, including the outgoing MPs, who have actual service in the state departments, before assuming the seat of parliament, and confirmed that the outgoing deputies for the third session on 14/7/2018, and have service in the government departments will be included with the unified pension law and deserve the retirement according to the last salary they received in the parliament , Adding that the deputies who do not have a previous service, will be included with the law of the Union of Parliamentarians, which was approved by the Parliament earlier, explaining that the law of the Union does not have a continuous nominal monthly salary, but rather there are financial rewards for each consultation submitted to the parliament , Harb also pointed out that the two laws of retirement and union of Parliamentarians enter into force for the outgoing deputies .

It is noteworthy that the Presidency of the House of Representatives represented by the second deputy chairman of the Council, “Aram Sheikh Mohammed, has already been informed ” on the fourteenth of this July, of the end of the functions of the current session of the Council and the conclusion of its work .
And “Zana Said,” the former deputy of the Kurdistan Group in a previous statement revealed the start of promotion of former MPs pension transactions after only sixteen days of the end of the life of parliament, indicating that the Presidency of the House of Representatives, called the Pension Authority to expedite the completion of transactions.

Economic Studies Unit
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies