Dina Ezzat reports on President Mubarak's mediation between the government and NDP MPs from Upper Egypt Sources within the National Democratic Party report that Gamal Mubarak, NDP assistant secretary-general, has been for weeks trying to bridge the communication gap between the government of Ahmed Nazif and the party's MPs. It is an open secret that Nazif is perceived by many NDP MPs as a Western style technocrat. He has been unresponsive, they complain, to the demands of many NDP MPs, especially those representing rural areas, who have repeatedly requested more job opportunities and better education and health care facilities for their constituents. Sources close to Nazif say that while sympathising with such requests the prime minister has found his hands tied: he is unwilling to deviate from the programme set out by his government in pursuit of the goals outlined by President Hosni Mubarak during last summer's presidential campaign. According to one source within the prime minister's office, MPs have made repeated demands for government job opportunities to be offered to their constituents at a time when the government is trying to scale down any expansion in public sector employment. They have also lobbied for mega projects to be implemented in their constituencies irrespective of the economic feasibility of such projects. Gamal Mubarak has been exerting extensive efforts to reconcile the views of both parties. Such attempts, though, have been subject to a fierce counterattack by some NDP figures -- notably ex-NDP Assistant Secretary-General Kamal El-Shazli -- who has been accused of stirring rebellion among NDP MPs from Upper Egypt. In an attempt to alleviate tensions President Hosni Mubarak, in his capacity as NDP leader, intervened on Tuesday, convening a meeting at the NDP's Heliopolis office that brought party chiefs, including Gamal Mubarak, secretary-general Safwat El-Sherif and leading politburo member Ahmed Ezz, together with NDP MPs from the four Upper Egyptian governorates of Aswan, Qena, Sohag and Assiut. The four-hour meeting, according to separate statements made by Nazif and El-Sherif, focused on the need to dedicate more attention to the development of Upper Egypt, an area traditionally neglected when it comes to government services and investment. "The aim is to direct close to 40 per cent of the [services and employment] budget to Upper Egypt," said Nazif. "We will do this despite the fact that Upper Egypt is not where 40 per cent of Egyptians live. The president is seeking to make up for the decades-long bias against the south." "The president said that Upper Egypt must be the subject of positive discrimination to make up for the unfairness with which these governorates have long been treated," said El-Sherif. Both Nazif and El-Sherif say that the majority of NDP MPs at the meeting complained of levels of employment and public service provision. In response to their demands President Mubarak instructed that Upper Egyptian residents should have priority in being appointed to government jobs in the region and requested that resources be allocated to improve and expand social services and health care. He also asked for new feasibility studies on projects ranging from an airport at Sohag to the expansion of the road transport network in Upper Egypt. The president was, say NDP sources, keen to avoid misleading MPs, and warned that MPs should not mislead their constituents about what the government can and cannot do. In press statements made on the eve of the presidential NDP meeting, Gamal Mubarak stressed that while the party is determined to upgrade public services and improve standards of living, it can only do so in ways compatible with the abilities of the government and its plans to attract more investment to Egypt. The president, according to El-Sherif, plans to meet with NDP MPs from other governorates soon.
