MAKKAH: The complaint and petition writers who crowd the entrances of courts across the Kingdom have a grievance that they do not know what to do about.
The writers who sit outside courts and government departments — usually under umbrellas and with photocopiers — are not employed by the government. With most government departments affected by a lot of red tape, complaint writers provide people with advice and also write petitions for them. However, petition writers in Makkah are now being asked not to sit outside the city courts.
“I have been writing complaints for people coming to the General Court in Makkah for more than 15 years and I’m getting poorer and poorer by the day,” said Ayidh Ahmed Al-Shihri, a 46-year-old Saudi. “I have no other source of income. I come to work at 7 a.m. and leave at 3 p.m. At best, my daily income does not exceed SR 200,” he said.
Al-Shihri, who is diabetic and suffers from hypertension and back pain, said he could not leave his job because of a dire need for cash to support his family of six.
To add to his concerns, he said, the municipality has now asked the writers to vacate their spaces and move into proper offices. “They’ve issued this order saying that we’re an eyesore. We’re now under constant threat of forced evacuation. We will not know what to do then,” he added. Al-Shihri said most of the complaints are usually about marital disputes. “People with lost rights or those seeking legal support come to us to write their complaints for them at prices ranging from SR10 to SR50 depending on the length and complexity of the complaint,” he said.
“We work in difficult conditions, including soaring heat and during the month of Ramadan, to provide our families with food and clothes,” he added. Despite technological advances, the writers still write by hand. They do not use computers and very rarely use typewriters. The writers are very experienced and can convey complaints better than the complainants themselves. “The complainant only has to make me understand his or her complaint and I will put it in writing for the judge,” Al-Shihri said.
Muhammad Daoud Al-Hamasani, 60, has been writing complaints for over 20 years. “I have enough experience to know what the complaint maybe about even before the man or woman speaks,” he said. He said most of the cases he writes about are applications for financial assistance. “The cases usually center around marital disputes but sometimes we write for landlords whose tenets refuse to pay rent,” he said.
Al-Hamasani said his monthly pension of SR1,500 is not enough to meet his daily expenses in addition to medical and school costs. “Despite my bad health, I have to come to work every day from early morning to late afternoon to earn a daily income of between SR70 to SR150,” he said.
Asked about the saddest case he has dealt with, he said it was about a father who came to disown his son.
Hamad Daifullah Al-Qahtani, 55, a father of nine, said most of his clients were foreigners or illiterate Saudis. “The complaint writer should be acquainted with the legal system so as to write properly,” he said.
Yahya Omar, a young Saudi who recently came into the business, said most government departments have now shifted from the old system of having written complaints to applications forms that are easy to read and quick to deal with. “In the past we needed writers because we did not have sufficient number of educated people here.”
Salem Al-Harbi who had been in the business for more than 28 years said he would usually give special discount to the poor and needy. “Though I have been writing petitions for more than a quarter of a century, I have never written for financial help,” he said.
