CAIRO // One of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's sons has said he is withdrawing his application for a job with a state-run company, amid a lawsuit and allegations he would secure the post because of his father.
Omar Morsi, who graduated recently from Zagazig University's Faculty of Commerce, said he decided not complete the application for the post with the Egypt Airports and Air Navigation Holding Company and stressed on his Facebook page that the question remaining is "how can I get a job in my beloved Egypt?"
He also struck back at claims that his salary was to be thousands of dollars, saying it paid 900 Egyptian pounds (US$134) per month, not 27,000 pounds as some had alleged.
The issue struck a sour note among many young Egyptians who struggle to find work for years after graduation and argue little has changed since Hosni Mubarak's regime in terms of the need for high-level contacts to secure state jobs. The country's unemployment rate climbed to 13 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with 12.4 per cent a year earlier, government data show.
Activist groups had criticised the apparent intent to offer Mr Morsi's son a job, a move defended days earlier by the civil aviation minister, who argued that the younger Mursi was qualified for the job and had gone through all the necessary tests and passed.
"The decision came through nepotism and is against the constitutional principle of equality between citizens," a statement from the groups, including the Revolutionary Youth Coalition and Egypt Students Movement, alleged.
"We won't allow the current regime to repeat Mubarak's regime or repression, working for their personal interests," the statement cited Bishoy Asaad, founding member of the Justice and Equality movement, as saying.
Egypt's prosecutor general ordered an investigation into a lawsuit filed against the president, Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and other officials to reverse the hiring of Mr Morsi's son, Al Ahram newspaper reported.
