Yemen Monitor / Newsroom:
An official source in the Office of the Presidency of the Republic warned of the repercussions of the decision by Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) member and head of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), Aidaroos Al-Zubaidi, to form a preparatory committee for a Fatwa Body and link it to the Ministry of Endowments and Guidance. The source described the measure as unilateral and a violation of the Constitution, the law, and the governing references for the transitional phase, foremost among them the Declaration of the Transfer of Power.
An official source in the Legal Affairs Department of the Office of the Presidency of the Republic stated that linking the authority to issue religious edicts (Fatwa) to the Ministry of Endowments and Guidance constitutes a constitutional and legal violation, given that the Ministry’s powers are executive and guidance-oriented, and do not extend to establishing Fatwa references of a sovereign nature.
The source added, in a statement published by the official Yemeni News Agency (Saba), that the decision undermines the unity of religious authority and leads to its division, which opens the door to an unwarranted religious conflict and does not serve social peace.
The source indicated that such measures allow the exploitation of the Fatwa for political or partisan purposes, thereby harming the unifying status of religion. It clarified that the decision falls within a series of unilateral decisions whose counterparts had previously been cancelled by the legal team supporting the PLC due to a lack of jurisdiction, in addition to it being a dangerous precedent that undermines the constitutional and institutional order of the state.
The source reiterated the rejection of all unilateral measures outside the constitutional and institutional framework, stressing the necessity of preserving social unity, protecting the prestige of the state, and preventing the establishment of any parallel entities that infringe upon sovereignty and constitutional legitimacy and challenge the state’s exclusive powers.
