The Egyptian Parliament on Saturday asked members of its Legislative Committee to reconsider a controversial bill regulating litigation, Bar Association elections, and the work of the nation's lawyers after news of the bill caused widespread anger within the ranks of the lawyers. The Parliament's Speaker Fathi Sorour said he had decided to send the bill to the Legislative Committee for reconsideration yet again, having read in newspapers about the anger of the lawyers at the bill. “It's not logical that the Parliament debates such a law without listening to the lawyers,” Sorour told legislators on Saturday. Opposition to the bill by a majority of Egypt's lawyers has raged for months now with the lawyers staging every show of protest against it. Last Thursday, scores of lawyers started an open-ended strike at the Bar Association in central Cairo to reflect their rejection of the bill, which, they say, will double litigation fees. “The poor will suffer the most from this,” said Mahmoud Moustafa, an anti-bill lawyer. “This means that the courts can become a no-go zone for the poor, which is tantamount to a major violation of human rights,” he told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. Some of the striking lawyers have threatened to start a hunger strike if the Parliament does not reconsider the new draft law. They say the law does not reflect the needs of the majority of the nation's lawyers, the thing that makes it illegal and unconstitutional. Part of opposition to the new bill, however, is related to the desire of the ruling National Democratic Party to weaken the Bar Association and control it, according to some of the striking lawyers. Although little is known about the new bill, the lawyers say it aims to strengthen the grip of the Government on the association by changing conditions for candidacy for the position of Bar Association's chairman. “The change in these conditions will open the way for the presence of candidates who have nothing to do with the association, but have links with the Government and the ruling party,” said Khalid Youssef, one of the striking lawyers. “The Government's control can sound the death knell for this strong union,” he added in an interview. The Bar Association is by far Egypt's largest professional union. With 420,000 people registered in it, it is a bloc to be taken into consideration by the government and the opposition alike. What gives credence to claims by the lawyers that the Government wants to manipulate their union is that the association has been an active player in anti-Government protests either in relation to food prices, or higher policies. As the striking lawyers were speaking against the new law inside the association, tens of other lawyers were protesting outside against Israel and what they called the Egyptian Government's leniency in dealing with it. They held anti-Israel placards and chanted slogans calling for Jihad (holy war) against the Israelis. Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. But anti-Israeli sentiment runs high in Egypt. “If the Bar Association is weakened, the whole of Egypt will be weakened,” Moustafa said. “This association is Egypt's pulsating heart. We're sure that the ruling party wants this heart to stop beating,” he added.
