Iraq council to draft 'bill of rights'
The US-backed interim leadership of Iraq will tomorrow begin drafting, under the presidency of a Sunni Islamist, a transitional law to regulate government from July 2004 to December 2005.
Mohsen Abdul Hamid, the leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, an organisation close to the international Muslim Brotherhood movement, yesterday took over the rotating presidency of the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council.
The presidency of the council, appointed in July, rotates every month. In January, it was held by Adnan Pachachi.
Council spokesman Mohieddin Al Khatib said the body will resume work tomorrow, after the Eid Al Adha holiday.
"We will then congratulate the new president," he said.
A leading Shi'ite member of the council, Abdul Aziz Al Hakim, had said the body will "begin studying a draft of the fundamental law."
Under the November 15 agreement between the Governing Council and the US-led coalition, the law should be completed before end-February.
The agreement says the law should be drafted in close co-operation with the coalition and should guarantee freedom of speech and belief, and equal rights regardless of sex, religion and ethnicity.
It should affirm the independence of the judicial system, arrangements for a federal state and civilian control over the armed forces. Shi'ite clerics have demanded that it mention Islam as the state religion.
The law cannot be modified during the transitional period.
gulf-daily-news.com
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