Attempting to manage the fallout of the Port Said football violence, the People’s Assembly national security and defense committee developed a list of recommendations, which, to the surprise of many, the government heeded: separating members of Mubarak’s regime in Tora Prison and moving the former president to the prison hospital.
The move seemed to indicate the clout of specialized committees within Parliament, but the question remains as to how binding these committee recommendations can be, and whether the list merely represents an attempt at damage control. It is also an illustrative lesson in how committees operate inside Parliament.
Karama Party MP Saad Aboud is part of the fact-finding committee looking into the Port Said events. He said that the current Parliament differs from past ones, and that there are mechanisms to ensure that committee recommendations are heeded.
"The recommendations have weight, because if they are ignored, then you can call a minister in for questioning, like what happened with Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim," he said. "This is the first time an interior minister had been called to Parliament and he appeared."
There are 18 specialized or sub-committees in the PA, aside from the general committee headed by the house speaker. They cover almost as many areas as there are ministries: national security and defense, foreign affairs, Arab affairs, economic affairs, constitutional and legislative affairs, human rights, youth, religious affairs, education and science, health and culture and tourism are some of the most prominent. There is also an ethics committee, which governs the behavior of MPs, and fact-finding committees may be temporarily established to investigate certain issues.
According to a Parliament statute, the specialized committees may submit draft laws to the general assembly and give feedback on laws. Also within their mandate is following up on official statements to the assembly or the public and determining the extent to which recommendations are implemented.
Yasser Kassab, the head of the Regional Center for Parliamentary Studies and Consultancy, says the subcommittees do not offer recommendations to executive bodies directly, but rather to the general assembly, and if agreed on through a vote, the recommendations become binding.
"Parliament is the institution that has oversight over all other institutions, including the executive branch," Kassab says. "However, recommendations have to pass through the general assembly first."
There is a committee whose sole mandate is to follow up on whether recommendations are respected by the executive branch.
Most committees are dominated by MPs from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and the Salafi-oriented Nour Party, not only because they are the two biggest parties in the People’s Assembly, with around 40 percent and 25 percent of seats respectively, but also because other parties boycotted the committee elections due to the huge number of nominations by FJP members.
Former military general and FJP member Abbas Mukheimar heads the national defense committee, FJP Vice Chairman Essam al-Erian heads the foreign affairs committee, former Cassation Court Vice President Mahmoud al-Khodeiry heads the legislative committee, Doctors Syndicate board member Akram al-Shaer (FJP) heads the health committee, and FJP MP Mahmoud Askar heads the religious affairs committee.
Nour Party MPs head the education and scientific research committee and the economic affairs committee.
However, if there are concerns about the FJP and Nour parties heading most of the committees, these stem from how much influence committee recommendations have on state policy, even without the seal of approval from the general assembly.
Wafd executive council member Essam Shiha said: "The role of the committees is to monitor their respective ministries in order to protect public interest. It influences state policy in so much as it opens up a debate between the legislative and executive branches and they can meet behind closed doors and share information that might not be shared in the public arena."
Adding that state resources also dictate to what extent recommendations can be followed, Shiha said that he wasn't concerned by most committees being headed by FJP and Nour MPs because "being in opposition is different than being in power. If you look at their statements before the elections and after you will see a noticeable difference. They are now closer to the consensus on state policy."
Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat of the Reform and Development Party heads the human rights committee, Nasserist Karama Party MP Mohamed al-Sayed Idris leads the Arab affairs committee, and Nahda Party's Mohamed Abdel Moneim al-Sawy heads the culture and tourism committee.
This particular Parliament is important because it will form the constituent assembly that will draft the new constitution, and the legislative committee has a part to play in that. According to Khodeiry's spokesperson Mohamed Shehata, the legislative committee will set guidelines regarding who can be included in the constituent assembly to ensure that, "All representatives of the Egyptian people are included in the assembly, whether on geographical or religious grounds."
Additionally, when the draft constitution is finished, it is referred to the legislative committee to ensure that it is in line with the laws of the land before it is presented to the general assembly.
These parliamentary subcommittees also have power because they are able to pass a vote through the general assembly, and hold relevant ministers to account through a series of steps.
"Parliament now has the power to ask a minister in for questioning and accuse him as well, leading up to a vote of no confidence," Aboud said.
There is a 13-tiered process to reach a vote of no confidence, so the assembly has 13 steps to take with the relevant minister, the last of which is a vote of no confidence.
The subcommittees’ "monitoring powers," according to Kassab, include notification, forming a fact-finding committee, accusations and finally a vote of no confidence. The no confidence vote can extend to the entire cabinet, but it needs a two-thirds majority to pass, rather than 51 percent.
"We don't have a totally separate system in the branches of power like there is in the US," Kassab said. "It is a mixed system and Parliament has oversight over the executive branch. This, of course, didn't happen in the past because of corruption, but now Parliament can exercise the authorities it possesses."
