Mohamed Nour Farahat, secretary general of the Advisory Council that was formed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), has tendered his resignation.
“The council's work is an effort in vain,” Farahat wrote in his resignation, adding that the council has lost its raison d’etre, which was mainly to propose criteria for the formation of the constituent assembly that would be tasked with writing the new constitution.
“The fate of the assembly is left in the hands of a Parliament that is dominated by a majority from a single political trend,” he said.
Farahat also said that not a single draft law was presented to the council for discussion, although this was meant to be among its main functions, and that it did not regularly hold monthly meetings to discuss serious matters, such as preparations for the beginning of the anniversary of the 25 January revolution.
Council member Hassan Nafea said the resignation would be submitted to the SCAF, who will then decide if they accept it or not.
State-run Middle East News Agency said the Advisory Council had decided in a meeting with representatives of different political forces on Tuesday to form two committees: the first will develop criteria for selecting the members of the constituent assembly while the second will prepare a preliminary draft of the constitution to be presented to Parliament.
Nafea said that Safwat Abdel Ghany, secretary general of the Construction and Development Party, the political arm of Jama’a al-Islamiya, was selected to be the rapporteur of the committee dealing with the formation of the constituent assembly, and Farahat had been chosen as the rapporteur for the constitutional drafting committee.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
