Hikmat Muhammed Kareem, also known as Mullah Bakhtiar (born August 20, 1954 in Khanaqin, Iraq) is a Kurdish politician in South Kurdistan. He is the head of the Executive Committee of the Political Bureau of the Patriot Union of Kurdistan (PUK). He is also the head of the Bureau of Democratic Organizations of the Patriot Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Chawder and the magazine Madaniyat.
Hikmat Mohammed Karim was born on August 20, 1954 in Khanaqin, southeastern Kurdistan. He joined the Kurdistan Marxist-Leninist Association on June 10, 1970, several months after the party was formed. In 1974, he joined the September Revolution, but faced many pressures and obstacles because of his leftist beliefs. In 1975, along with many of his comrades, he returned to Khanaqin on the orders of the leadership of the Marxist-Leninist Committee, after the collapse of the 1975 revolution as a result of the Algiers Agreement signed between the Iraqi and Iranian governments on March 6. Hikmat Karim was on the list of wanted leaders issued by the Iraqi government, but attempts to arrest him were unsuccessful. He later became in charge of all the secret cells of Komala in the cities. He secretly traveled between Baghdad, Kirkuk, Kalar, Samawa, Diwaniya, Fallujah, Mosul, Sulaymaniyah and Erbil, in order to form armed cells to participate in the armed struggle.

Mullah Bakhtiar has held the following positions since 1975:
In 1975, he became a member of the leadership of the Kurdistan Ranjdaran Association.
In 1976, he became a member of the leadership of the PUK.
In 1978, he became the regional head of Halabja region.
In 1982, he was in charge of the Sulaymaniyah organization center of the PUK.
In 1984, he was a member of the Kurdish negotiating team with the Iraqi regime.
In 1991, he played a significant role in the Kurdish people's uprisings.
In 1992, he attended the Congress of Iraqi Opposition Political Parties in Vienna.
In 1992, he was a candidate for the Kurdistan Parliament.
In 1993, he became head of the Bureau of Democratic Organizations of the PUK.
In 1995, he became the president of the Kurdistan Olympic Committee.
In 1995, he became a member of the Kurdistan Parliament.
In 1999, he attended the Iraqi Opposition Congress in New York.
In 2001, he became a member of the Political Bureau of the PUK.
In late 2002, he attended meetings of the Iraqi opposition in Dublin.
In 2009, he became a member of the Executive Committee of the Political Bureau of the PUK.
In 2010, he was appointed head of the executive committee of the Political Bureau of the PUK.

Publications and journalistic work:
In 1996, he was the supervisor of the media center of the PUK. He wrote the book Kurdistan Revolution and Contemporary Changes, which was published in 1992. In 1998, he wrote Rebellion in History. A handful of identified articles were published in He wrote Democracy Between Modernity and Postmodernity in 2000 and Democracy after the Cold War in 1999. He has also written several other books, including In the Service of Literature, Freedom of Mind, Civil Society and Kurdology, Russia and the Kurds, Democracy and Its Enemies. Among other literary works, Mullah Bakhtiar is the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Chawder and the magazine Madaniyat. [1]