Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, is calling for the withdrawal of the Legal Profession Regulations currently before Parliament.
According to him, the legislation, which has been in Parliament for over a month now, has not even been seen by some of the Members of Parliament because they do not have copies.
Muntaka also alleged that, information available to him suggests the regulation has not been gazetted.
The same Legislative Instrument is the subject of a petition from the Association of Law students who want it annulled.
Speaking on the Floor of Parliament on Thursday, Muntaka Mubarak argued that, the withdrawal will help ensure that persons responsible for laying such legislation before Parliament do the right thing.
“Mr. Speaker, on 22nd December 2017, we laid the Legal Profession Regulation 2017. Mr. Speaker, as we speak, we don’t have copies in the House, more than one month after its been laid. Information reaching me is that, even that regulation has not been gazetted.”
“Nobody in this house apart of from some few members of the committee have this document; meanwhile the days are running. When you look at the constitution…it talks about it coming into force at the expiration of 21 working days. And now if you count the days…we exhausted about 11 days already, leaving us with only ten days. Yet this has not been gazetted, nobody has a copy and yet the days are counting,” he said.
Muntaka, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Asawase constituency, pleaded with the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu to ensure the withdrawal of the regulation “so that they will know that we are tired.”
Nana Addo petitioned over LI for law school admissions
The Association of Law Students on January 29, 2018 petitioned President Nana Akufo-Addo to cause the withdrawal of the controversial Legal Profession Regulations 2017 from Parliament.
The Association wants the President to impress on Members of Parliament to vote against the regulation.
The General Legal Council laid the Regulations in Parliament in mid-December 2017, in response to a Supreme Court order for a clear admission procedure into the Ghana School of Law, and call to the Ghana Bar.
The proposed LI in question, among other things, states that the General Legal Council will conduct an entrance exam for the admission of students to the school, and conduct interviews for all applicants who pass the Ghana School of Law Entrance Examination.
The LI is expected to become Law this month, February, 2018.
But the law students maintain that if the document is passed in its current form, it will restrict access to legal education.
Source: citifmonline.com