After two procedural meetings on Sunday and Monday, Egypt's new parliament – the House of Representatives – decided on Tuesday that its 19 committees would begin meeting to discuss 341 presidential law-effect decrees that have been passed since the removal of former president Mohamed Morsi from office in July 2013.
On Tuesday afternoon, speaker of the house Ali Abdel-Al told MPs that the most senior MP in each committee would temporarily act as its chairperson until the 341 decrees are discussed and reviewed in line with article 156 of the constitution.
"Later on and until parliament's internal bylaws are amended so that they are in line with the new constitution, MPs can elect a chairperson, two deputies and a secretary-general for each committee," Abdel-Al said.
Abdel-Al's decision came after deputies rejected on Monday night a proposal that six committees be formed to discuss the 341 laws that have been issued by former interim president Adly Mansour and incumbent President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and to revise parliament's internal regulations to go in line with the new constitution.
Abdel-Al said parliament has less than 13 days to discuss the 341 presidential law-effect decrees and as a result all the 19 committees should prepare reports about these decrees for discussion by Saturday, 16 January.
"If we are not able to finish these presidential decrees within the 15-day period, all of Egypt will stumble into a severe constitutional gridlock," Abdel-Al said.
Abdel-Al told parliament on Tuesday that parliament should begin on Sunday discussing the reports that will be prepared by the 19 committees on the 341 decrees.
On internal regulations, Abdel-Al indicated that in accordance with article 224 of the constitution, parliament will continue adopting the old regulations (passed in 1979), but would exclude articles that contravene the new constitution.
In addition, a special committee will be formed to review laws that are deemed to be urgent and of utmost importance. These include the terror and protest laws.
Sirri Siam, an independent MP and former chairman of the Higher Council for Judges, will head the committee.
Renowned lawyer Bahaa Abu-Shuqa will head the constitutional and legislative committee. Abu-Shuqa is the oldest MP and thus was the parliament speaker on Sunday until Abdel-Al was elected.
Parliamentarian Aly El-Moselhy will head the economic committee. El-Moselhy was a member of ousted former president Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party, and he was also minister of social solidarity during Mubarak’s reign.
The budget and planning committee will be headed by MP Kamal Ahmed. Ahmed handed-in his resignation from the parliament on Tuesday but it was rejected.
Ahmed was an opponent of Mubarak, and he previously stated that he was a member of the Nasser-era Arab Socialist Union in his youth. He said he opposed the open-door policies of late president Anwar El-Sadat, and the privatisation of the public sector.
Controversial lawyer and Zamalek club chairman Mortada Mansour will head the human rights committee. Mansour is renown for filing lawsuits against his critics.
He has often been seen on television waving a Compact Disk (CD) against his opponents and threatening that he has information against them.
Mansour recently said he doesn’t believe 25 January 2011 to be a “revolution” but an “uprising,” hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Informed sources said the pro-government parliamentary bloc In Support of Egypt also proposed that the number of parliamentary committees be increased from 19 to 30.
The proposal, submitted by many MPs affiliated with this coalition, stated that new committees – such as a one on African affairs – could be formed while the old committees should be separated into independent ones.
"A committee such as the media, culture and tourism one, for example, can be separated into three independent committees," said leading official of the bloc Osama Heikal. He told reporters that the separation of committees has become necessity in order to accommodate parliament's unprecedented number of MPs (596) and so that a thorough and adequate discussion of laws can take place.
"If a committee for solely media affairs was formed, it would allocate greater time to discuss press and media affairs, but if it remains part of a larger committee it would be quite difficult to revise laws on these affairs in a short time," Heikal said.
The possible increase in the number of committees would warrant a new election to choose the heads of these committees.
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