Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi

Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi is an Iraqi politician who is the Minister of Communications in the Iraqi Government and was also Minister of Communications in the Al Maliki government from May 2006 until August 2007.

Education

Allawi studied Architectural Engineering at Baghdad University from 1971 to 1977, when he left as he was wanted by the government of Saddam Hussein. He went into exile and moved to Lebanon, where he obtained a degree in Architecture from the American University of Beirut. At the same time he founded the Tawfiq Allawi Cable & Electric Wire Factory which manufactured various raw materials including marble, concrete and PVC. His factories were confiscated by the Iraqi government in 1997. Allawi went on to found a cereal bar factory and a software company in England and to work in property development in Lebanon, Morocco and the real estate market in the UK.^[1]

Interfaith International

Allawi joined Interfaith International, a Swiss based NGO that supported the human rights of Muslim minorities during the Yugoslav Wars.^[1]

Politics

Allawi participated in the Salah Al-Din Conference of opposition parties in 1992 and the London Conference in 2002. He was elected to the Council of Representatives of Iraq in the Iraqi parliamentary election of January 2005.^[1] He is the cousin of Ayad Allawi who founded the opposition Iraqi National Accord and went on to be the interim Prime Minister of Iraq from 2004 to 2005.

In May 2006 he was appointed Minister of Communications in the Al Maliki government. After fifteen months the INL withdrew from the government, citing the Prime Ministers practice of making ministerial appointments on a sectarian basis.^[2] They remained in opposition for the remainder of the parliament and Allawi became an MP again.^[1]

References