Archive for Kamal al-Ganzouri’s

Parliament prepares to withdraw confidence in Ganzouri cabinet

by admin
April 3rd, 2012

The People’s Assembly on Sunday will hold the first of three sessions to determine its response to a statement from Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri’s government, ahead of a planned vote on withdrawing confidence from the military-appointed cabinet.

The coming sessions will also set dates to file motions alleging financial corruption. They will request these allegations be handled by Ganzouri, as well as the ministers of petroleum, health, local development, transportation, foreign affairs and interior.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, the biggest bloc in Parliament, voted last month to begin the process of withdrawing confidence in the cabinet, a move that would take Egypt into uncharted political waters shortly before the military is due to relinquish power.

The military has pledged to hand over to an elected president by 1 July.

Last week, the People’s Assembly announced its rejection of the late February cabinet statement, in which the prime minister listed his cabinet’s achievements since its appointment in December 2011.

MPs slammed the statement as weak and said it failed to shed light on a number of pressing issues.

But according to the country’s interim constitution, Parliament does not have the power to sack a government. Only the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has the right to appoint the cabinet and discharge ministers.

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FJP continues push to oust Ganzouri cabinet

by admin
March 29th, 2012

The Freedom and Justice Party launched another sharp attack on Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri’s cabinet, demanding its resignation or for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to force it to step down if it fails to do so voluntarily.

“Kamal al-Ganzouri addressed the MPs with two statements — the first was an improvised statement before the People’s Assembly, and a few days later he sent us a written statement to Parliament,"  said the head of the party's parliamentary bloc, Hussein Ibrahim, during a Thursday press conference at the FJP headquarters.

“We reject both statements. Nineteen People’s Assembly committees rejected them, as did all parliamentary bodies with the exception of the bodies which include the Freedom, Ittihad (Union) and Egyptian Citizen parties,” he said. All three parties are associated with the formerly-ruling National Democratic Party.

Ibrahim said all options were on the table for the FJP, including taking to the streets if the Ganzouri cabinet does not resign. He said he expects the SCAF to respond to calls for democracy and sack the current cabinet, and that if it fails to do so, the FJP plans to call ministers in for questioning before Parliament.

Ibrahim went on to say that the Constitutional Declaration legitimized Parliament, giving it the right to monitor the cabinet’s performance and to withdraw confidence. He said he expected discussions about the government’s performance to end by next week.

Ibrahim said the FJP will not accept a new government that serves as nothing more than a “secretariat” and will form a government with complete authorities.

During the press conference, Osama Yassin, the FJP’s assistant secretary and chairman of the People’s Assembly Youth Committee, said the SCAF is responsible for the crises as “it formed this government.”

Defending the military-run government, state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper said the government had issued over 100 major decisions that were needed to complete the country's critical transition stage, and a number of decisions targeted low-income citizens in order to improve their standard of living.

Al-Ahram said important measures have included reducing public spending from the state budget by nearly LE20 billion without affecting low-income families, taking necessary and immediate monetary and fiscal measures to stop the decline in foreign cash reserves, maintaining the value of the Egyptian pound against foreign currencies and preserving its value despite the dramatic decline in cash reserves, and reducing subsidized petroleum products for high-energy utilizing industries.

Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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FJP to start proceedings to dismiss cabinet

by admin
March 27th, 2012

The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party has said it would start the proceedings for dismissing Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri’s cabinet on Wednesday by rejecting its parliamentary briefing.

“Nineteen parliamentary committees and all political parties agree with the FJP’s desire to dismiss the cabinet,” said FJP MP Abdel Aziz Khalaf. “It is the cabinet that is plotting all the crises [from which] we suffer.”

Islam Fares, a young member of the Brotherhood, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the young members were assigned to organize demonstrations against the cabinet in all universities on Tuesday, beginning with Al-Azhar University and ending in Tahrir Square.

Around 4,000 students protested inside the campus of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, calling for the Muslim Brotherhood to form a new government, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

Emad Abdel Ghafour, president of the Salafi-oriented Nour Party, said only a coalition government would be able to resolve the economic crisis.

“It is time the military council listened to the voice of reason and immediately dismissed the cabinet for its failure to manage the country during this difficult phase,” Abdel Ghafour said.

“It should also absolve itself of responsibility for overseeing the presidential elections and the preparation of the constitution, and leave it up to the political parties to handle,” he added.

FJP spokesperson Yousry Hammad said Ganzouri should meet with the Islamist parties in Parliament to consult with him on how to run the government if the military council decides not to remove him.

According to the Constitutional Declaration, only the SCAF has the right to appoint and dismiss the cabinet.

Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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MB leader: FJP refuses changes to the Ganzouri cabinet

by admin
March 14th, 2012

The Freedom and Justice Party has refused the proposed reshuffling of Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri’s cabinet, one of the party's MPs said on Wednesday.

Shura Council member Ahmed Abdel Rahman said the FJP refuses the continuation of the government as its performance was sub-standard and that it would withdraw confidence from it next week.

“The party would not be granting its confidence to the government, and will refuse its statement,” Abdel Rahman told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Wednesday. “There are 29 requests for interrogation against the government from all parliamentary parties.”

Yousry Hammad, a spokesperson for the Salafi Nour Party said the party’s High Committee met on Tuesday and decided to open dialogue with all parties in preparation for withdrawing confidence from the Ganzouri cabinet. He said the party changed its previous decision due to new recent events.

Hammad told Al-Masry Al-Youm that “communications between the Nour Party and all political forces confirmed that most of these forces agree on the withdrawal of confidence.”

He said that the party refuses reshuffling the current cabinet and demands that it be changed completely “as its performance is questionable.”

Hammad added that “overwhelming evidence shows that the Ganzouri cabinet is managed in the same way as the National Democratic Party.”

Meanwhile, Ahmed Abul Nazar, chairman of the Nahdet Masr Party and member of the coalition of Sufi order parties, said the party successfully convinced the coalition and Sufi orders to support the Ganzouri cabinet against the FJP’s attempts by establishing a fund to meet workers’ demands and to help manage crises. He said it would be funded by businessmen who would receive tax deductions and other benefits.

He went on to say that the party sent this proposal on Wednesday to Ganzouri and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm

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Monday’s papers: Parliament slams Ganzouri address

by admin
February 27th, 2012

Monday’s papers report negative reactions from Parliament to Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri’s address to the People’s Assembly on Sunday.

Otherwise, the Parliament continues to be occupied by issues seen as irrelevant to the concerns of the general public, with the exception of a few.

After the completion of the legislative body with the elections of the Shura Council, it seems the run-up to presidential elections and the controversy around the formation of the committee drafting the constitution has taken center stage in the news.

In reaction to Ganzouri’s address, in which he placed most of the blame for Egypt’s economic crisis on foreign countries who didn’t follow through with their promises of financial support to the country and plotted against it, the Freedom and Justice Party official paper called his statements weak and criticized Ganzouri for failing to address important issues such as security plans and retrieval of stolen funds.

The independent Al-Shorouk also reports a negative reaction from the majority of Parliament members to Ganzouri’s address. The paper also reported that many members seem inclined to cast a vote of “no confidence” against Ganzouri’s cabinet.

State-run Al-Ahram newspaper, however, chose to focus on Ganzouri’s reassurance that “Egypt will never kneel down,” and that it is time for Egypt to deal with other countries as equals and to put the interests of society above those of the rulers.

Al-Ahram announces that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces has invited members of both houses of Parliament to meet next Saturday to vote on the committee that will draft the new constitution.  

The paper says that the Freedom and Justice Party insists on its proposal that 40 members of the committee come from Parliament and the remaining 60 be public figures.

In its official paper, Freedom and Justice Party Chairman Mohamed Morsy reassures the public that the choice of the committee members will be based on qualifications and proportional representation of all sectors in society, including women and youth.

The paper also announces the choice of the party’s Sharqiya representative in the Shura Council Ahmed Fahmy as the speaker for the upper house of Parliament. It quotes Fahmy saying that the new council will not be made up of a majority and an opposition, but instead, all its members will work together.

Al-Shorouk publishes the developments in the efforts of the “committee of 100” attempting to form a presidential team to avoid the division of votes between the candidates representative of the revolution.

The committee has set meetings with candidates Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh and Hamdeen Sabbahi, seeking their consent to the idea before choosing one of them as president and the other as deputy.

Al-Shorouk also reports that the committee is reaching out to some of the new candidates, including leftist lawyer Khaled Ali, to convince them not to run in order not to divide the votes.

In a new episode of the series of controversial and seemingly trivial issues occupying Parliament, the religious committee discussed a proposition by MP Mahmoud Abdel Mordy to ban websites offensive to Prophet Mohamed, as reported by the Freedom and Justice newspaper.

Parliament, however, has broached a few issues that actually matter to the public, including Interior Ministry reforms and steps toward prosecuting Mubarak with the charge of high treason.

Al-Shorouk says that the Assistant Justice Minister Omar al-Sherif said in a meeting with the parliamentary Suggestions and Complaints Committee that the current law allows for the prosecution of the former president with the charge of high treason.

MP Hosni Dweidar, who proposed the move, told the paper that this meant that Parliament could summon Mubarak for prosecution.

 

Egypt's papers:
 
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
 
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
 
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
 
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
 
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
 
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
 
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
 
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
 
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
 
Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party
 
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
 
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party
 
Al-Nour: Official paper of the Salafi Nour Party
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Sunday’s papers: Foreign funding on trial and Ganzouri before Parliament

by admin
February 26th, 2012

Today’s papers cover two events regarding people coming under intense scrutiny by the country’s leaders. The first is the beginning of the trial of NGOs for illicit foreign funding and the second is Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri’s address of Parliament today on behalf of the government.

The Freedom and Justice Party newspaper, Freedom and Justice, reports that today is the first trial session for 43 defendants in what is known as “the foreign funding trial.” Nineteen Americans, five Serbians, three Arabs, two Germans and a number of Egyptians working for several different NGOs will now stand trial for something the government was aware they have been doing for years.

The independent Youm7 quotes judicial sources who say the first session will be mainly procedural, listing the charges and awaiting the defendants’ responses to them. It is expected that the defense team need an interpreter from the Justice Ministry for the duration of the trial. The newspaper also quotes defense lawyer Negad al-Borei, who states that the newspaper name for the case, i.e. “the foreign funding case,” is misrepresentative, as investigations have shown that there is no foreign funding related to this case.

Under the headline “The end of the US-Egyptian honeymoon,” the opposition paper Al-Wafd reports on US media coverage of the case. It says many American outlets are pointing out that the US has so far not managed to reign in its longtime ally on the subject of the NGO investigation. It quotes the Washington Post as declaring that the alliance is in danger because of this trial.

Meanwhile, Ganzouri is readying for his appearance in Parliament. The independent Al-Shorouk reports that he will attempt to convince the assembly of accepting the US$3.3 billion International Monetary Fund loan. Judging by the general anti-aid stance of MPs, it is fair to say Ganzouri will be facing a tough crowd. If he fails, though, he can always turn to Salafi Sheikh Mohamed Hassan, who is collecting money from Egyptians in order to do without foreign aid.

Freedom and Justice has an obvious vested interest in Ganzouri’s speech, seeing as they’re the big guns of the assembly. Their newspaper reports that nothing new is expected in the prime minister’s speech, and just to show that Ganzouri faces an uphill task, the newspaper reports that initial indications from Parliament is that they will refuse the foreign aid. That is, unless the prime minister manages to convince them the country is in vital need of it and there is no alternative.

Unlike the FJP, however, Youm7 reports that Ganzouri will have some surprises up his sleeve, mainly regarding the efforts to reclaim money that has seeped abroad in the past year and, more interestingly, a plan to restructure the Interior Ministry in order to bring security back to Egypt’s streets.

On the subject of the so-called “security vacuum,” state-run Al-Gomhurriya pats itself on the back for a campaign it did regarding thuggery on the ring road, which led to a massive security presence on the highway that interlocks around Cairo.

It’s interesting how under Mubarak, state-run papers presented a rosy view of Egypt — the “country of safety and security” — and now, even a cursory look at such a newspaper displays Egypt as an out-of-control anarchic state constantly in chaos, held to ransom by “the state of thuggery.”

Onto presidential candidates, as there is much to report about them lately. Al-Gomhurriya reports that the attack on potential candidate Abdel Moneim Abouel Fotouh was the work of a car theft ring, and he wasn’t targeted personally. Abouel Fotouh was returning from Beni Suef when he was attacked in his car.

A picture of Abouel Fotouh looking well among his family at home is on the front page of both Al-Gomhurriya and Youm7. It’s the very same picture. In fairness, one is more cropped than the other. Al-Shorouk trumps them both, plastering the exact same picture on its front page, only much, much bigger.

There is also news on former presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei, with both Al-Shorouk and Freedom and Justice reporting that he will be forming a political party “within 10 days” along with members of his presidential campaign. The party will espouse ElBaradei’s liberal ideas, but it hasn’t been decided yet whether he will head it or be a member of its higher committee. 

Egypt’s papers:

Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt

Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size

Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run

Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run

Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned

Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned

Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party

Youm7: Daily, privately owned

Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned

Freedom and Justice: Daily, published by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party

Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned

Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Nasserist Party

Al-Nour: Official paper of the Salafi Nour Party

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