CAIRO, Jan 19 (Aswat Masriya) – The Supreme Administrative Court decided to pause looking into the appeal against the privatisation of the Beni Suef Cement Company on Monday.

The court ordered reinstating workers to the company but decided to suspend looking into the appeal of the privatisation. The suspension is pending another court decision in a case questioning the constitutionality of a law issued last year, which bans third parties from challenging sales or investment contracts signed between the government and investors.

The law in question stipulates that courts must suspend viewing appeals of contracts, even if the cases were brought to court prior to the issuance of the law.

The law was approved in April by former interim president Adli Mansour and was heavily criticised by the Egyptian Centre for Social and Economic Rights (ECESR) for its issuance. The NGO said the law "wastes the rights of citizens and workers from detecting suspicions of corruption" in contracts.

The controversy over the cement company dates back for longer than a decade. The cement plant, which has an annual production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes was sold in 1999 and was since owned joint venture between French company Lafarge and Greek company Titan group. In 2002, Titan Group acquired the shares owned by Lafarge and has since owned the plant.

In February 2014, an administrative court ruled in favour of the privatisation but ordered reinstating the workers, as stipulated in the sales contract. This court ruling was appealed by both the workers, who want the privatisation to be reversed and by company officials, who do not want to bear the costs of reinstating the workers.