WATANI International
20 February 2011
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) last week assigned an eight-member panel of jurists and scholars with the task of amending the Constitution as it sees fit to secure democracy and the integrity of presidential and parliamentary elections.
The panel was given ten days to complete the task. High on its list of priorities was annulling the articles which give Egypt’s president unlimited terms in office and the right to refer cases to military courts; as well as those pertaining to monitoring elections to guarantee their fairness and freedom.
The SCAF took power on Friday 11 February 2011 following 18 days of wide protests that ended with Hosni Mubarak stepping down as president of Egypt since 1981. The following Sunday the SCAF suspended the Constitution and dissolved Parliament, while promising a six-month transition to democratic rule.
The panel
Heading the constitutional committee is Tareq al-Bishri, 77, a retired judge who sat on the State Council, Egypt’s highest administrative court which hears lawsuits against the government. Mr Bishri has written two books on the history of modern Egypt, and has to his credit more than a dozen publications on history and law. He is widely considered a moderate Islamist He dubbed Christians as ahl Thimma (non-Muslims living under Muslim rule, as subjects—not citizens—of a Muslim State), and branded the Coptic Church as “a State within a State”.
At least two members of the committee have known Islamic leanings. Sobhy Saleh, 58, is lawyer and rights activist, and is a popular member of the Muslim Brotherhood who represented Alexandria for the group in parliament from 2005 to 2010. Atef al-Banna is a Cairo University law professor who has founded a NGO named Human Rights in Islam.
One member, Maher Samy Youssef is a Copt. He is a judge on the Constitutional Court, as are Hassan Badrawi and Hatem Bagatou. The other two members are Mohamed Hassanein Abdel-Aal and Mohamed Bahi. All five are independents with no known political affiliation.