Jordan News

Illustrated by: Nasser Al-Jaafari – Written by: Muhammad Al-Rantissi

Although the late Dr. Muhammad Khalil Al-Hammouri held several ministerial positions, including the Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply, the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, and the Minister of Higher Education, the most important of all is his presence as one of the most prominent constitutional and legal experts in Jordan.

Al-Hammoury (Abu Tariq), born in Irbid in 1940, has remained a reference for the state, its politicians, its media, and the sons of the legal profession, to take his opinion and advice, as what a man presents, due to his long experience and competence, is considered a “final say” when the fog surrounds something (constitutional or legal). ) and obscures the view.

Among the most prominent mentions of Hammouri, one of the founders of the University of Jordan, is that he exposed a constitutional breach committed by the National Assembly in 2014, when it passed a bill giving each of its members who completed 7 years of public service a lifetime pension; Calculated on the basis of the basic salary received by the minister working in the state.

Abu Tariq, who is also one of the most prominent opponents of one vote, considered holding the parliamentary elections on the basis of the proportional list as a constitutional violation, and believes that the one-vote law and the fragmentation of electoral districts led to the re-tribalism in its strongest form on the one hand, and to dislocate and then loosen the bond of civil society that it built The state on the other hand, and the weakening of the hoped-for growth of political parties on the third hand.

In recent years, Hammouri had a prominent view on the electoral law, which he said, to be modern, should provide Jordanians with a number of issues, including the introduction of the system of wide electoral districts, and getting rid of the idea of ​​quotas of various kinds.

In general, Hammouri remained until his death on February 1, 2022, as a voice of advice to adhere to the rule of the constitution and to warn of the danger of revolting against it, in many ways, and he appeared as “the guardian and custodian of the constitution.”

The man also has a distinguished political presence through what he has been proposing for decades, embodied in several books he authored, most notably titled “Constitutional and Legal Requirements for Real Political Reform”, “Captive Freedoms between the Tyranny of Government and Exploitation of Religion – Origins and the Path to Salvation”, and “Rights and Freedoms Between The whims of politics and the obligations of the constitution.” At the end of 2017, he founded the Partnership and Salvation Party, which took the position of its Secretary-General at the time.

Al-Hammoury holds a BA and MA in Law from Cairo University, a Diploma in Comparative Law from Cambridge University, Britain, a PhD in Law from the same university, and a Diploma of the Federal Judicial Institute from Washington. Dr. Qusay, Dr. Ghaith, and lawyer Raghad.

Like Al-Hammouri, his career does not stop at his passing. What he left of a legacy of knowledge, whether books, articles or opinions, will remain alive and present on the scene as a reference that cannot be bypassed, just as it cannot be transcended as a national figure with his status and prestige in the past and in the future.