Cairo - Akram Ali
Egyptian political academic Ammar Ali Hassan has said that Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has threatened parliamentary speaker Saad Katatni of dissolving the parliament. Critics of the administration have been calling for a confidence vote against interim prime minister Kamal Ganzouri's government. Hassan, who works at the Middle East Centre for Political Studies said on his official Facebook page that the Speaker received a phone call from Tantawi in which he used "harsh words and threatened to dismantle the parliament." The veteran researcher said: "Why did Katatni not tell the people that the parliament is being controlled and imprisoned? Although it is the sole legitimate institution in the country, it is useless and of no value and it yields to whatever is asked of it at the expense of public interest, whether through drafting the constitution or not controlling the governmet. They collected the people's will and imprisoned it in a cold hall under a hollow dome."