DR ‹ › Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi avoided answering an oral question from MP Chafika Lachraf on his ministry's failure to uphold commitments made during consultations on the controversial bill regulating the legal profession. Ouahbi argued that the question raised in Parliament did not correspond to the one officially submitted to his department by the office of the House of Representatives. Lachraf, who is also a lawyer, accused the Ministry of Justice of backtracking on the outcomes of forty dialogue meetings held with the Association of Moroccan Bar Associations. According to her, those discussions led to clear commitments aimed at improving lawyers' working conditions and safeguarding the profession's hard-won achievements. The former member of the Democratic Forces Front (FFD) denounced what she described as a «clear legislative regression» and criticized the minister's refusal to respond to her question, warning that such an approach could further «aggravate the situation» and deepen the crisis of trust. The draft bill on the organization of the legal profession has drawn strong criticism from the Association of Moroccan Bar Associations, which considers it a «non-consensual» text that contradicts the conclusions of earlier dialogue sessions with the Ministry of Justice. The bill is set to be discussed by ABAM's national council on January 3 in Marrakech. In a statement issued on December 23, the association urged the minister to withdraw the draft law, arguing that it runs counter to the «spirit of the final agreements» reached after a «broad professional mobilization», conducted under parliamentary mediation.
