Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi made on Monday a second reshuffle of senior government positions since he assumed the premiership in May.
His move came one day after a set of directives was addressed to the government by Supreme Shiite cleric, Ali al-Sistani, in which he called to fight corruption, organize early elections under international supervision and prosecute those responsible for killing peaceful demonstrators.
Many activists, however, criticized the new appointments, which they said were based on “quota sharing” and included names who had held senior positions in the past but failed to prove their competence.
Observers noted that the new positions were allocated according to “quotas and partisanship” and were mostly dedicated to the political movements of Al-Hikma and al-Sadr, al-Fateh Alliance, al-Fadila Party and the State of Law Coalition.
The reshuffle included the governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, which was occupied by Ali Al-Alaq for more than 10 years. The latter was replaced by the Bank’s director of the legal department, Mustafa Ghaleb.
Kadhimi also made direct changes in the economic and security sectors by appointing former Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi as the deputy of operations affairs in the Iraqi National Intelligence Service. Al-Obeidi was dismissed from office over corruption allegations in 2016.
Other newly appointed officials in the security sector is Faleh Younis Hassan, who was chosen as deputy of the National Security Service.
The Minister of Justice in the government of former PM Nuri al-Maliki, Hassan Halbous al-Shammari, a member of the Islamic Fadila party, obtained the position of chairman of the Securities Commission.
Advisor to the Prime Minister, Soha Dawoud Elias Najjar, was appointed to the position of president of the National Investment Commission, which Sami Al-Araji has held for about 15 years.
Kadhimi also appointed Alaa Jawad Hamid as the head of National Integrity Commission, which is tasked with fighting corruption.
