Wasat Party MP Essam Sultan submitted on Tuesday a request to the People’s Assembly speaker to question the ministers of defense, interior, and finance over the enormous military and police squads guarding the house of presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq.
Essam said in a tweet that the squadron guarding Shafiq’s residence in the Fifth Settlement around the clock costs more than LE2 million a day.
Sultan called upon the concerned ministers to explain who bears the costs for those forces, and wondered whether it is funded through the state’s budget. He also asked if all candidates enjoy the same privilege.
This is Sultan’s latest attack in his fight against Shafiq, the last prime minister under former President Mubarak whose success in reaching the presidential runoff has enraged revolutionary forces opposing the return of the former regime.
Sultan, along with other MPs, had championed legislation banning former regime figures from assuming political posts in a bid to deny Shafiq the presidency. The Presidential Elections Commission, however, decided to keep Shafiq in the race and referred the legislation to the Supreme Constitutional Court.
Sultan had also filed a petition with the state prosecution accusing Shafiq of selling lands owned by an association of junior pilots to the sons of the deposed president for a preferential rate.
Shafiq had fired back at Sultan in a press conference, accusing him of having been an informant to the notorious, now-dissolved State Security Investigation Services.
