November 26 will remain a memorable day in the track of Mr. Abdellatif Ouahbi, the PAM Secretary General, the Moroccan liberal party which is participating in Aziz Akhannouch government. On that specific day, Mr. Ouahbihas completed the aspects of his leadership over the party through announcing members of his politburo during the party national council meeting in Marrakech.
About 21 months after his coming to take the party leadership, of which, he assumed the position on February 9, 2020, in really unpleasant circumstances, characterized by the Covid-19 pandemic, and its repercussions, and by the marathon preparations for September 8 elections, Ouahbi has come to turn a new chapter of his tracking book as he has managed to overcome storms and bring the party ship back to safe haven and maintain its position in the political scene, he was even closer to win the government presidency. Mr. Abdellatif Ouahbi has entered in coalition with his arch rival and therefore has won interesting government seats.
The PAM Secretary General Mr. Ouahbi’s appointment as Minister of Justice in Azizi Akhannouch cabinet on October 7, 2021, was the crowning of a political man with a rich past experience in terms of political and legal action. Since his election as the party Secretary General, Mr. Ouahbi has inaugurated a new track and has targeted his objectives to bring the party out of internal conflict and deadlock, announcing his own ambition to be part of the upcoming government and this is exactly what has occurred.
Mr. Ouahbi was born in Taroudant in 1961, East of Agadir, and became since last September the mayor of that city and its representative at the Parliament; he has opened his eyes within a family known for its resistance against colonialism.
His late father was a Berber from Souss area (center of Morocco) while his late mother was originally from the Rif area. Mr. Ouahbi, in statements made to the press, has stated previously that his father was a well-off businessman before getting married to his mother and has integrated the resistance movement against French colonialism in Casablanca before he moved to the North of Morocco (then occupied by the Spaniards), and over there he had got married to his Rif spouse who gave birth to Abdellatif.
In the aftermath of Morocco’s independence, Mr. Ouahbi’s father had joined UNFP then USFP (Moroccan socialist party) and used to have close relationship with USFP leaders such as Abderrahim Bouabid and Mohamed El Yazghiwho paid him visit anytime they visit Taroudant.
In his native town, Abdellatif Ouahbi went to school, got his baccalaureate (public high school) before he moved to Rabat to study law at Mohammed V university to get his BA. Since he was fond of lawyer profession, he started his training in the office of late Ahmed Benjelloun, one of the political leaders of the social democratic party Attaliaa, an offspring of the USFP back in the eighties. Due to his leftist tendencies even before he had started his experience as a lawyer and before his meeting with Benjelloun, Mr. Ouahbi had integrated the socialist youth organization earlier and in 1989 he joined the Moroccan Association for Human Rights a leftist legal association, which he was following its activities when he was still a pupil in Taroudant. He had afterwards integrated the leftist social democrat party Attaliaa
Ouahbi as a brilliant lawyer
In 1996, Ouahbi left Attaliaa party and gave up the practice of party action for years and had focused since then on his profession, he has developed himself and improved his professional skills to become a successful lawyer with wide reputation in Rabat. He joined the PAM in 2010.
In 2011, he ran for parliamentary elections yet the big turning point in his track, was recorded in 2019 when he led a reformist movement to change the party track and therefore presided it in addition his party got 87 seats in the last September 8 elections to be ranked second after the RNI party which got 102 seats; those elections which have witnessed the regression of the PJD (Islamic background) by getting only 13 seats instead of 125 seats in 2016 ballots.
Mr. Ouahbi was famous for his defense for detained students in the university events during the nineties and has considered sentences against them as “harsh”, he was also famous for his pleadings in favor of businessmen detained in the cleansing campaign led by former late Minister of Interior Idriss Basri in 1995.
The PAM… The foundation
The PAM was founded in 2008, by a number of personalities who belonged to various political roots, (officials, leftists, rightists and notables), among the most important was Mr. Fouad Ali El Hemma, who withdrew rapidly from the party and was appointed as counselor to King Mohammed VI, the party has succeeded rapidly in leading the political scene in Morocco when he ranked first in the local elections of 2009 and was competing to win in 2016 legislative elections.
During the legislative tenure 2011 – 2016, Mr. Ouahbihas emerged as President of the party in the House of Representatives and has constituted the opposition axis against Abdel Ilah Benkiran government. Mr. Ouahbi then chaired the Justice and Legislative commission at the House and was elected deputy President of the House, but the big change occurred in 2019 when he declared the foundation of “the future movement” inside the PAM and so has managed to gather around him a good number of party leaders in the confrontation with the movement led then by Hakim Benshemmas, former SG of the PAM.
In the aftermath of 2016 results in which the party was ranked second, former SG Ilyass Al Omary presented his resignation and the party held its extraordinary conference which elected Benshemmas as a new SG thanks to Ouahbi’ssupport; yet after a short period of time, feud differences emerged between both leaders… Ouahbi has managed to call for another PAM conference under the slogan of reviewing the party’s orientations and resorting to democracy in decision-making.
The PAM conference was held in El Jadida, (South of Casablanca) in 2020, in which Ouahbi was elected as the PAM new Secretary General, the fact which has brought in major changes in the party track.
Mr. Ouahbi announced his readiness to carry out bold self-criticism of the party track and bring in some changes in its orientations, the party was labeled “party of the state” and “party of instructions” due to its foundation circumstances; however, Mr. Ouahbi has come to bring that status to its end and so has made of the PAM a normal political party stressing on the necessity to cut off the link with the state and ignore to “be empowered by the authority” and to commit itself to the Kingdom’s constitution.
Mr. Ouahbi has vowed to restructure the party to be open to youth and all citizens and has also promised to guarantee “the party decision independence” and has always repeated that “state parties in Arab countries have failed for instance in Tunisia, Syria and Iraq”; the other important point that should not be ignored is that the PAM, since its foundation, has raised the slogan of “fighting Islamists”, but Mr. Ouahbi has reversed the equation, considering that the PJD is a national party working within the constitution framework, declaring his readiness for dialogue and cooperation with that party; he even went a little further when he considered that Commander of the Faithful and the Endowment Ministry are another expression of political Islam, and that what should be rejected is the “political use of religion”; this statement has raised a big reaction.
Mr. Ouahbi has also raised the slogan of achieving political détente through the release of the Rif events detainees and has called for respect of democracy and human rights, such a political discourse has given a new political dynamism and new winds blowing on the PAM.
Exciting positions and statements
Mr. Ouahbi’s exciting positions and statements have made him the focal point of people interested in politics, especially when he has raised hot issues with unprecedented frankness, like when he said during a TV program as Minister of Justice, that he would submit a petition to King Mohammed VI about amnesty on behalf of the Rif detainees, such a statement has stirred a big fuss, knowing that amnesty is among the king’s competencies not the Minister of Justice.
Recently, Mr. Ouahbi has pointed out at a parliamentary session that he has asked the government President to allocate a budget to get luxurious cars for judicial officials, under the pretext that they drive inappropriate cars and has also promised to take care of courts buildings and recreation spaces for judges and lawyers.
Before holding a ministerial portfolio, Mr. Ouahbi was among the initiators to constitute a fact-finding parliamentary commission to study the conditions of Moroccans who had joined ISIC/Daech and have been stranded in Syria and Iraq.He has presided over that commission for several months and has published a report after it has listened to members of those stranded families who returned from battle spots and have spent sentences in Moroccan prisons before they were released.
During the last September 8 elections, Mr. Ouahbi was repeating trustfully that his party was heading to lead the elections; when asked “whether he was ready to be a minister in a cabinet presided over by the RNI, he responded “Either I will lead the results and become President of the government, or I will not be a minister in a government led by another party”.
Mr. Ouahbi has repeated that statement more than once and after the RNI led the elections, he was asked the same question then e responded it is the party National Council which has announced its decision to participate in the current government and therefore has asked Ouahbi personally to take part in it, to conclude that politics has its own constraints.
Another Mr. Ouahbi’s positions prior to last September 8 elections, is his call to solve the House of Counselors (second house), which he considers as a council that “wasteslegislative time”. He has also criticized trade unions and businessmen representatives at the house saying that they care about the principle of interests..
Mr. Ouahbi has previously criticized the RNI party and its leader former Minister of Agriculture, Aziz Akhannouchfor having offered assistance before elections through charity association called “Joud”, a behavior then considered by Ouahbi as a “political scandal” but he has come back to form a coalition with Akhannouch after the elections results and afterward they have become associates in the current government. MR. Ouahbi said in this regard “I have had many differences with him during the elections, the conflict was of electoral aspect, a conflict of existence and of positions, but when we have worked together in the same government, each one of us has discovered the other and so Akhannouch has become a close friend of mine and on many occasions, we open dialogues between us and our relations are very good”.
Relations with the King
Mr. Abdellatif Ouahbi does not find embarrassment to talk about what has occurred between him and King Mohammed VI when he has received him after Ouahbi was elected the PAM Secretary General. In one of his press interviews he stated “by his nature, the king makes you feel comfortable in talking to him, yet he even makes you feel reassured and at ease so that you can talk to him frankly and clearly”; adding that he has talked to the king Mohammed VI about everything, from politics through to Taroudant and has clarified that the Moroccan Monarch has very big ambitions and follows minutely all details matters and the country’s issues”.
Mr. Ouahbi has disclosed that his meeting with King Mohammed VI lasted 20 minutes, saying that “the king is a good listener and when he makes comments to you, he asks precise questions and shows a big respect to his interlocutor”.
When the PAM has published a book about his experience, Mr. Ouahbi has insisted on sending a copy as a gift to King Mohammed VI; after that, he has received in return a royal thankfulness message which was published on the party site.