President Morsi selected 16 legal advisers Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has announced plans to form a new legal advisory board. The body will comprise 16 advisers, with whom Morsi will meet following his return from Brazil on Friday.
Political observers have predicted that the new legal board will disintegrate into a "facade," suffering the same fate as the advisory board the president assembled shortly after his inauguration.
The previous body was dismantled after ten out of 17 members resigned.
Ayman Sayyad, a former presidential adviser, suggested that the new legal board will be puppeteered by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau, which would sideline legal advisers.
The president's legal aide Mohammed Fouad Jadallah has already resigned in objection.
Sayyad said any further attempt by Morsi to submit draft laws to the Shura Council, Egypt’s legislative body, would prompt further resignations.
Mohammed Abdul Shafi, a political science professor, commented: "The president should have hired one or two consultants to advise him on various legal matters. Instead, he chose to form an advisory body like he did before.”
Shafi argued that Morsi will use the new legal team as a scapegoat for future crises, just as he did with the previous advisory board.
Mahmoud Attar, former vice-president of Egypt’s State Council, criticised Morsi’s decision, asking: "If the Shura Council is entitled to legislate and issue new laws, why do we need so many advisers?"