Egypt\'s Shura Council criticised

Egypt's Shura Council was severely criticised on Tuesday at a seminar which evaluated its performance, three months after the country's new constitution was passed, giving legislative powers to the Shura Council in the absence of an elected lower house. The main criticisms levelled at the council at the seminar organised by Refa'a al-Tahtawy Forum, were its failure to prioritise legislation according to need and its repeated breaches of its constitutional constraints. Speakers at the seminar recommended that the Shura Council rely on members who have a background in political science to propose bills that answer to a public need, especially as many members of the council don't have a significant parliamentary background. They also called for amendments to the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights to ensure the balanced representation of all political currents, and the publication of the minutes of the council's sessions in order to allow the public to acquire information about council debates and decision. Khalil Marei, an expert on parliamentary affairs, said: "The Shura Council's legislative work has been quite modest and poor, both in practice and in the tools available, as evidenced by the legislations it is currently discussing." The speaker criticised members of the Shura Council for putting forward bills that don't fall within the council's remit, which is operating as the main source of legislation in the absence of the Council of Representatives, despite being only the upper house of Egypt's parliament. Marei said legislators should focus on more pressing issues, such as the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights, instead of working on non-essential legislation concerned with NGOs and sokouk, a form of treasury stocks. "An effective parliament is one which works like a court of law: it begins by determining jurisdiction. If something is not within its jurisdiction, is it discarded. If it is within its jurisdiction, then it’s accepted before it proceeds to the next stage. But we find that the Shura Council's process when tackling the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights was blatantly unconstitutional: the law was approved in total, instead of each article being studies independently before being debated as a whole," Marei said. "Legislation these days makes one remember the days of condemnations and denunciations fondly, because what's happening at the Shura Council now is worse than the 'soft-boiling' of laws we used to get. That was much classier than what the council is doing now." El-Sayed Karim, also a parliamentary expert, put forward three examples of the Shura Council's behaviour, starting with its "lack of a clear understanding of its own position, which was amply illustrated when the council's bylaws were being outlined." He added: "Moreover, some members have an avid appetite for proposing draft bills, such as the Law on the Exercise of Political Rights and the Council of Representatives law, despite the Shura Council not being permitted to propose draft bills." The second fault, he said, was: "Expanding the council's powers without a set ceiling, despite the fact that the council itself lacks the capacity to handle this expansion, both in terms of its members and its technical advisers in the General Secretariat. In addition, the Shura Council is struggling over discussion of monitoring bodies' reports, because the constitution charged the Council of Representatives with this task, in the form of the administrative monitors and the Egyptian Auditing Organisation. So the Shura Council has referred many reports to the Egyptian Auditing Organisation and its members couldn't discuss them in committees, becausethey don't know how to go about discussing such matters." Third, he said, is: "The Shura Council's confusion when discussing the appointment of the new Governor of the Central Bank. There was no clarity when the bylaws were being amended, and, according to the article that says the Shura Council must confirm appointments to independent and monitoring bodies, they didn't know whether he would make his statement before the general assembly or a certain committee, or whether the committee should report to the council." Karim also criticised some Shura Council committees for "exceeding their specified role" by carrying out monitoring activities and field visits, citing incidents during crises in Libya and the United Arab Emirates. Despite only the Speaker of the Council being allowed to address the government, Karim noted that some committees have done so. He also held the council responsible for costing Egypt two positions at the Arab League's Arab Parliament by putting forward the same candidate, Ali Fath el-Bab, for secretary-general of the parliament after he had failed to receive any votes in his candidacy as speaker. Karim said the Shura Council then established a committee on African affairs especially for Fath el-Bab. Karim also criticised the Shura Council for "attacking the Supreme Constitutional Court," an act which he said contravened parliamentary traditions and conventions, as well as exceeding its constitutional powers by carrying out monitoring activities like forming fact-finding committees. "This Shura Council has failed to change the public's impression of the previous council, even though previous constitutions did not give the Shura Council legislative duties," Karim said. The parliamentary expert also posed the question of whether the Shura Council will debate the general budget bill or not. Karim noted that, according to Article 115 of the constitution, approving the budget is one of the Council of Representatives' duties, and wondered whether the Shura Council would alter the budget as well. "I don't think the Shura Council is sufficiently prepared for this," he said.