BAGHDAD — After the Iraqi parliament passed a law Nov. 26 establishing a new security force independent of the Iraqi army — consisting of the predominately Shiite militias of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) under the leadership of the General Commander of the armed forces — the Sunni bloc walked out of the legislature as a show of its opposition. The predominantly Shiite National Alliance supported the law.

According to the parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, the law turning the PMU into an official security institution would be structured similarly to the anti-terrorism apparatus. The PMU law stipulates limiting fighters to 50,000, of which 15,000 are to be Sunni. Current figures indicate that there are 150,000 fighters in the PMU's ranks. The 2017 budget, however, includes funding for 110,000 fighters, pointing to the possibility of only 40,000 fighters being demobilized.

“The aim is to turn the PMU into a national institution that includes all components and sects, rather than being confined to one component of the Iraqi people,” Deputy Security and Defense Committee Chairman Iskandar Watout told Al-Monitor. “The law provides for the preservation of the moral and material rights of PMU members, much like the members of the Iraqi army, as well as for the rights of the families of the martyrs.”

Watout emphasized, “This is the least [the government] can do for the PMU factions that have sacrificed a lot to liberate Iraq from terrorism.”