The Nour Party representative for the 50-member constitution-drafting committee, Bassem Al-Zarka, has stepped down from the role for health reasons. A member from the Nour Party's alternative members list for the committee will be nominated in his stead, Head of the Nour Party Younis Makhioun said on Wednesday. Members of the Nour Party on the alternative list are Mohamed Saad El-Azhary and Ibrahim Mansour. Makhioun affirmed Al-Zarka only stepped down for health reasons, emphasising that otherwise he wouldn't have left the committee, which is tasked with amending the 2012 suspended constitution. On Monday, Al-Zarka withdrew from a constitution-drafting session in protest over how the meeting was run, accusing certain committee members of "excluding views" from the discussion. The dispute was over Islamic-related articles in the suspended 2012 constitution, which have caused controversy among the 50-committee members. At the time, Makhioun said "Al-Zarqa's withdrawal from the meeting doesn't mean he's withdrawing from the 50-member committee." The Nour Party, along with other Islamist forces - predominantly Muslim Brotherhood representatives - dominated Egypt's 2012 constituent assembly under former president Mohamed Morsi. Nour is the only Islamist party represented in the current constitution-drafting body. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/81962.aspx
