Non-Islamist MPs blast decision to reconvene parliament's dissolved lower house, reject decision to refer last month's constitutional court ruling to Egypt's Court of Appeal Egyptian MPs that boycotted Tuesday's parliamentary session have censured statements made by Parliament Speaker Saad El-Katatni in which he announced plans to refer last month's ruling by Egypt's High Constitutional Court (HCC) – which had led to the temporary dissolution of parliament's lower house – to Egypt's Court of Appeal. Tuesday's session was the first time for the People's Assembly (the lower house of Egypt's parliament) to meet since itsreinstatementon Sunday by newly-inaugurated President Mohamed Morsi. Independent MP Wahid Abdel-Meguid, who boycotted the session, said he had done so because he knew that the issue of the reinstatement of the People's Assembly would not be discussed. "It's inappropriate for MPs to attend a session of parliament only to have a top-down decision dictated to them and then be made to leave afterward," he told Al-Ahram's Arabic-language news website on Tuesday afternoon. "Today's session should have opened the floor for propositions on how to deal with the HCC verdict [dissolving the lower house], but there was only an announcement by the parliament speaker without any discussion of the matter by the general assembly," Abdel-Meguid added in reference to El-Katatni's ten-minute address, immediately after which the session concluded. Abdel-Meguid went on: "The right way to handle the HCC verdict would have been to refer it to the parliamentary committee on legislative edicts, not to submit it to the court of appeal. The committee is the right body to determine parliament's legitimacy." A number of representatives of leftist and liberal parties – including the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the Tagammu Party, the Wafd Party and the Free Egyptians – boycotted Tuesday's session. "Had I been in the country, I wouldn't have attended the session because the president's decree reinstating parliament is still before the judiciary," independent liberal MP Amr Hamzawi, who is abroad at the moment for personal reasons, stated on his Facebook page. "It's not my right to attend any parliamentary session until there is a final court verdict in this regard, out of respect for the rule of law," the MP said. "I'm wholeheartedly for ending the military council's control over the legislative authority," Hamzawi added. "But the elected parliament and president should respect the role of Egypt's judiciary." The military council's order last month to dissolve the Islamist-led parliament had been based on an HCC ruling that declared Egypt'sparliamentary elections law– which regulated last year's legislative polls – to be unconstitutional. One day later, the military council issued a 'constitutional addendum' granting itself full legislative authority until fresh parliamentary elections are held. Ehab Ramzi, for his part, MP for the Freedom Party, an offshoot of ousted president Hosni Mubarak's now-defunct National Democratic Party, said: "Today's session was a form of political bullying that doesn't even occur in dictatorships." Ramzi, a member of parliament's legislative committee, went on to accuse Morsi and his presidential decree of "infringing upon judicial authority." Sessions of the reinstated People's Assembly are not expected to resume until Egypt's Court of Appeal issues a verdict on the status of members of the lower and upper houses of parliament (the People's Assembly and Shura Council respectively), pursuant to Article 40 of last year's military-issued Constitutional Declaration. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/47355.aspx
