CAIRO: Egypt’s parliament has passed a bill that allows authorities to dismiss employees affiliated with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and other terrorist organizations from government positions.
The move follows a string of deadly rail accidents blamed on the MB, lawmakers said.
Public employees who have “failed to meet their duties as part of a bid to harm public services or the economic interests of the state” will be fired, the legislation said.
An Egyptian government source said in a statement that the law will be implemented within weeks.
The source added that the government is working to keep employees belonging to terrorist organizations away from high-profile positions within the state after it was found that a clandestine group within the government was involved in schemes aimed at harming the state.
He said: “Cleansing state institutions of MB members is complicated and not easy, because most of them do not clearly declare their affiliation.
“The law will define the mechanisms for dealing with each case and indicate the extent of its involvement in actions that threaten the stability of the country.”
In such cases, the employee must be dismissed from his position and prosecuted, he said, adding that in other cases it will be sufficient to remove the employee from his executive position and place him under supervision.
The source said that the government “will not tolerate any action that threatens the stability of the country,” adding that “any employee or official in a government position should implement the goals of the state and work to serve it.”
If an employee is put on a terror list compiled by the authorities — which covers Islamist to liberal groups — that will be a basis for dismissal, lawmakers said.
The legislation amends a 1973 law that set out a disciplinary code detailing the grounds for dismissing public servants, according to AFP.
The parliamentary session on Monday also extended by three months a state of emergency that has been in place since 2017.
