Shafaq News/ The legal committee of the Iraqi parliament on Thursday revealed the fate of the laws withdrawn by the government of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani since the formation of the legislative session in 2021.
Committee member Aref al-Hammami told Shafaq News Agency that "the process of withdrawing laws by the government is a legal and constitutional procedure, especially since some of the laws present in the House of Representatives were withdrawn by the government to improve their financial basis."
Al-Hammami explained that "the government withdrew the Compulsory Military Service Law, the Law on the Treatment of Housing Encroachments, the Reconstruction Council Law, the Companies Law Amendment, the First Amendment to the Iraqi National Oil Company Law, the Second Amendment to the Public Roads Law, the Federal Civil Service Law, and others."
He added that "the government withdrew these laws, as they were sent by the previous government, and they need to be amended and need to have financial allocations within the budget, which is the basis for withdrawing the laws," calling on the government to "speed up sending the important laws to the House of Representatives, as it has not yet sent those laws back."
The withdrawal of laws by the government has raised concerns among some lawmakers and observers. Some argue that the government is using this process to delay the passage of important legislation or to bypass the parliament's oversight role.
The government has defended its decision to withdraw the laws, arguing that it is necessary to ensure that they are properly drafted and that they have the necessary financial backing.
It remains to be seen when the government will resubmit the withdrawn laws to the parliament.
Some of the withdrawn bills were on compulsory military service and housing encroachments, in addition to amendments to the national oil company law, public roads law, and federal civil service law.