CAIRO: Even though the presentation of a draft law regulating the work of legal specialist was postponed until later this month, the specialists said they are satisfied with the process so far. A parliamentary committee was scheduled to present the draft law on Wednesday, but postponed it to March 24 due to the absence of the Ministry of Finance representative authorized to approve the proposed salaries. Mohamed Tahoon, the specialists' spokesperson, told Daily News Egypt that although they have not yet received anything official, they are well aware of the content of the draft law. "The ministry approved providing us with protection as part of the legal guarantees of the specialists' work and agreed on establishing a health care fund for all employees at the ministry, Tahoon said. Last year, specialists staged strikes for four months, demanding the cancellation of periodic book number eight - which allows them to examine case files inside courtrooms only - and obligatory appointments at courtrooms. They were also calling for an amendment to Law 96/1952 as well as better pay and work conditions. Protests were suspended after PA Speaker Fathi Sorour pledged to adopt the new specialists' law personally and guaranteed that it would be discussed during the current parliamentary session, which began last November. He also promised to have the PA's legislative committee examine any controversial ministerial decisions that specialists objected to. The PA's legislative committee deemed the Ministry of Justice's decisions, which had sparked the legal specialists' crisis, as "illegal and urged the ministry to present the new specialists' law to parliament in November, ending the four-month standoff. The ministry then formed a committee to draft the new law. The ministry agreed on a new incentives system that was implemented last October. However, the committee refused to turn the legal specialists' sector into an independent authority. It also rephrased the process of obligatory appointments to make them ministerial decisions, rather than "the illegal format of the previous decision which came from the head of the courts, Tahoon said. Currently, specialists are stationed within preliminary courtrooms instead of being called in when needed; they also receive official copies of case files. "We are hoping that the new law does not introduce unexpected articles that would stir other problems, Tahoon said.
