After a week of stormy events at the Pharmacists' Syndicate, peace is temporarily restored, Mona El-Nahhas reports During an emergency general assembly held at the headquarters of the Pharmacists' Syndicate on Friday, members backed a recent decree passed by the syndicate ousting Secretary-General Mahmoud Abdel-Maqsoud and electing Abdallah Zein instead. A few days before the general assembly and in the absence of Abdel-Maqsoud, members of the syndicate council, most of whom belong to the Muslim Brotherhood, decided to dismiss the secretary-general from his post. Their argument was that Abdel-Maqsoud contracted an agreement with the taxation authority that would harm the interests of all young pharmacists. "If such an agreement was made, owners of small pharmacies would soon announce bankruptcy. It's totally unfair," Mohamed Abdel-Gawad, deputy chairman of the syndicate, told Al-Ahram Weekly. According to the internal statutes of the syndicate, the secretary-general has no right to take any decision without consulting council members. "What he did was a flagrant violation of the syndicate law," Abdel-Gawad added. Abdel-Maqsoud is widely said to have strong ties with prominent figures of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). One of them, as Abdel-Gawad said, stood behind the Health Ministry's latest decree regarding the licensing of pharmacies. One condition stipulated that a pharmacy should be at least 40 square metres to be licensed. "Of course, for a large sector of young pharmacists, such conditions cannot be easily met. This means that the market will be monopolised by only big pharmacies," Abdel-Gawad pointed out. Soon after the council meeting, the ousted secretary-general, accompanied by a group of his supporters, reportedly attacked the syndicate, seizing all papers and seals. The two groups went to the police. The incident is currently being investigated by the prosecutor- general. "I did not attack the syndicate. I just headed towards my office to work. Those who usurped the syndicate in my absence are the real thugs," Abdel-Maqsoud told the Weekly, insisting that he was the sole legitimate secretary- general of the syndicate. Four pharmacists who are said to be loyal to Abdel-Maqsoud filed a lawsuit at Cairo Southern Court calling for placing their syndicate under judicial sequestration. The first hearing will be on Monday 3 May. "Of course, I'm not in favour of sequestration. But such a group should not be allowed to dominate the syndicate," Abdel-Maqsoud said. The ousted secretary-general intends to sue the council members who dismissed him and called for abolishing their decree which he claimed was "100 per cent illegal". The lawyer of a wealthy businessman who has a chain of pharmacies bearing his name is said to represent Abdel-Maqsoud in the lawsuit. According to Abdel-Maqsoud, half the council members, including the syndicate chairman himself, did not attend the meeting "during which the decision to dismiss me was made". The health of the syndicate chairman Zakaria Gad is said to prevent him from taking up his duties. Abdel-Gawad acts as his replacement. "Everything is back to normal now," the newly-elected secretary-general told the Weekly. Zein strongly denied talk that the MB ousted Abdel-Maqsoud to dominate the syndicate. The decision was made during the general assembly by pharmacists who belonged to various political affiliations. "The next step is to fight to improve the financial situation of pharmacists," Zein noted. For the last few years, the Pharmacists' Syndicate has sought to amend the financial and professional situation of more than 100,000 members. A sit-in in front of Cairo Southern Court is scheduled to be staged next Tuesday 4 May by a majority of pharmacists to press for holding new syndicate council elections. The last syndicate council polls were staged in 1994. According to Law 100/1993 regulating elections at professional syndicates, the chief justice of Cairo Southern Court is authorised to fix a date for holding elections. Former and current chiefs of justice were reluctant to set such a date, leaving the Pharmacists' Syndicate controlled by the same members for the past 14 years. The same scenario was repeated in both the engineers' and doctors' syndicates. Fearing possible domination by Islamists over syndicates if elections were staged was the main reason behind the delay. While admitting that Abdel-Maqsoud "made a big mistake by signing such an agreement with the taxation authority behind the back of the council members," Mohamed El-Kalawi, a leading syndicate member, viewed the step taken by the council as "very serious" which would lead the syndicate "to the dark tunnel of sequestration. "I think it's politics, after all. It's a struggle between the MB and the NDP. Neither of the two cares for the syndicate. Each is trying to get the upper hand at the syndicate and marginalise the role of the other just to serve his own interests."
