Allawi highlights issues with political process in interview

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Leader of al-Iraqiya Bloc, former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, has expressed persistence that one of the three proposals he recently raised must be achieved, considering it as one of the steps that would achieve Iraq‘s stability, describing the role of the US administration in Iraq as “failure” and expressing fear for his personal security in Baghdad, according to an interview with the al-Sharq al-Awsat (Middle East) newspaper, published on Sunday. “The situations are heading towards very difficult trends for several reasons, the forefront of which is the nature of the political process that was built on an erroneous basis, including marginalization and political sectarianism,” Allawi said in the interview. “This led to a lack in construction of State institutions that would be capable of presenting proper services for citizens, especially in the fields of security,” he noted. “Many conditions laid out in the national partnership were never implemented, leading to the difficult tensions currently facing Iraq; these tensions have escalated seriously, to include the case of Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimy and Deputy Prime Minister, Saleh al-Mutlaq,” Allawi highlighted during the interview. “There are no laws in the country, where the law is politicized and the laws are under politicization, along with measures that are taken outside the limits of the law and against the Constitution; that is why there is no concept for the sovereignty of law and complete disrespect for the sovereignty of the Constitution,” Allawi added. “The violations have not stopped; there remains the Internal System of the Council of Ministers, which until now has still not been issued along with the appointments of Major-General and above in the Army and Consultants, the names of whom must first be discussed by the Parliament, according to the Constitution, which never happened, constituting a constitutional violation,” Allawi responded when asked by al-Sharq al-Awsat Newspaper’s Arbil Correspondent about when such violations began. “Secondly, there is the issue of the detainees; according to the Constitution, no detainee may stay in a detention center for more than 24 hours, which should be renewed by the judge only once, and no detainee should be locked in in a secret prison and must have a lawyer, things that do not exist,” Allawi said. “In Iraq, we do not have democracy, we have no stability and the government should have been based on a genuine partnership, according to nine axes, but this partnership was not achieved, due to the failure of the partnership process and the failure of the Arbil Conference,” Allawi stated. “This is why President Jalal Talabani called to hold a National Conference, as if there had been an active Parliament and Government, and a real partnership there would be no reason for such a conference,” he concluded. SKH (TP)/SR659