New legislation targets overdue Iraq’s PMF benefits and integration
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq will resolve long-running disputes over service and pension rights for members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), with the government expected to send parliament a draft law next week, an Iraqi lawmaker reported on Thursday.
During a press conference, Bahaa Al-Araji, head of the Reconstruction and Development Coalition (RDC), led by former Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, noted that the RDC has been preparing its own version of the bill while consulting several political groups. He also criticized the use of the measure as a means of political pressure, arguing that the priority should remain the establishment of clear legal protections for PMF personnel.
The legislation has been stalled since March 2025, when Al-Sudani withdrew it from parliament amid political disagreements that had repeatedly contributed to a lack of quorum and disrupted legislative sessions. The bill has been politically contentious over provisions governing the PMF’s institutional structure, service conditions and retirement arrangements. Many leaders within the Coordination Framework have attributed the postponement of the vote to what they described as “US interference.”
Earlier today, wounded PMF personnel and families of those killed in service staged a sit-in outside the National Pension Authority in Baghdad, demanding overdue benefits and pension entitlements equivalent to those granted to personnel in other security institutions.
The PMF —a state security organization comprising mostly Shiite armed factions— currently faces a government effort to consolidate weapons under state authority, with September 30 set as the deadline. That broader debate has also brought renewed attention to the group’s future structure, including how its members will be financed and managed. Earlier this year, an informed source indicated to Shafaq News that the Iraqi government was seeking access to frozen state funds held abroad to help finance the integration of more than 800,000 armed faction members into the PMF and other security institutions.
Read more: Iraq's PMF Service and Retirement Law: Is political exploitation inevitable?
