Parliament starts reviewing laws passed in its absence

As Parliament begins reviewing over 300 laws passed since the Constitution was approved in January 2014, news began to emerge Wednesday evening of preliminary decisions made by the 19 committees established to undertake this process.

Member of parliament Khaled Youssef stated that the Manpower Committee rejected the civil service law, according to the privately owned Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper. He added that the law would be further discussed and amended by parliament at a later stage and a final decision would be made during a public session in the coming weeks. However, the state-owned Egynews quoted committee head Salah Eissa as saying that a decision hasn’t yet been reached on whether to reject the law or not, but that the committee approved five of the laws out of 11 up for review on Wednesday.

The civil service law, passed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in March 2015 has been criticized for negatively affecting seven million public workers by cutting their salaries, giving extensive power to managers, and introducing vaguely worded regulations that could threaten basic labor rights.

Egynews also reported that parliament’s legislative committee approved all 34 laws it was tasked with reviewing and that Bahaa Eddin Abu Shaqa did not enable committee members to openly voice their objections to the laws, asking them instead to submit their reservations privately, to be included in the committee’s final report, which will be sent to parliamentary speaker Ali Abdel Aal.

Among the laws reportedly rejected by committee members are amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, the terrorist entities law and amendments to the Penal Code. Some members also objected to the law regulating prisons, as well as a law enabling the president to fire the heads of monitoring bodies in cases of proven corruption.

The Economic Affairs Committee reportedly approved all laws passed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi relating to the economy, according to the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper.

Among these was the investment law, which was passed by the government ahead of the Sharm el-Sheikh Economic Conference in March 2015. One key element of this law is the establishment of an Investment Promotion Authority under the direct supervision of the prime minister. The law mandated the establishing of a nationwide database of land plots available for investors. Rights groups argue the law gives investors too much power, granting rights and privileges without corresponding responsibility.

Other approved laws reportedly include those relating to income and sales taxes, legislation protecting competition and preventing monopolistic practices, and the real estate finance law.

As parliament has just 15 days to review all of the laws passed since the ratification of the Constitution, more updates are expected in the coming days, as the various committees convene to discuss the laws allocated to them for review.