Egypt's Islamist-oriented parliament and the government of Prime Minister have decided to bury the hatchet, at least until the election of a new president, reports Gamal Essam El-Din On Monday, ahead of discussion of the new state budget, the People's Assembly, the lower house of Egypt's parliament, which has been dominated by the Islamists following last year's elections, has decided not to debate three "interpellations" -- questions that must be answered by cabinet ministers -- directed at the government of Prime Minister . Parliamentary spokesman Saad El-Katatni said that "if these interpellations had been discussed, it was possible that the People's Assembly would have withdrawn confidence from the government of ." El-Katatni said that at the request of the MPs who had submitted the interpellations, they would now be discussed as requests for information, which do not lead to a vote of confidence in the government. The three interpellations included accusations directed at El-Ganzouri, Minister of Justice Adel Abdel-Hamid and Minister of Agriculture Mohamed Ismail, taking the three to task for allegedly failing to recover plots of land taken by leading officials from ousted former president Hosni Mubarak's now-dissolved former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Adel Azzazi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), said "it was the duty of the Ministry of Agriculture to distribute plots of land to young high school and university graduates to help them cultivate this land and generate incomes for themselves." However, instead, Azzazi claimed, "the ministry came under pressure from leading officials and heavyweight business tycoons and the lands were lost." Yet, "because of the critical stage of life in Egypt now, and because the time is too short to withdraw confidence from the government and appoint a new one, I have decided to turn what was an interpellation of the government into just a request for information." Joining forces with Azzazi, Akram El-Shaer, another FJP MP, sharply criticised the government for not doing enough to eliminate the corruption of the Mubarak regime. El-Shaer said that "many elements of the El-Ganzouri government belonged to the Mubarak regime and the NDP. Is this part of a plan to re-impose the Mubarak regime and NDP on Egypt," he asked. "How can I ask for confidence to be withdrawn from this government, when parliament did not have a vote of confidence in it in the first place?" In response, Mohamed Salem, the newly-appointed Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, said that "I highly appreciate MPs who show their sincere intention to cooperate with the government for the sake of Egypt in order to get through this critical period." The Islamist-oriented parliament and the government of El-Ganzouri seem thus to have decided to bury the hatchet after three months of bitter confrontations and verbal clashes. Islamist MPs, led by the Muslim Brotherhood's FJP, attacked the policy statement delivered by El-Ganzouri before parliament on 26 February, accusing him of "exporting the everyday problems facing ordinary citizens to parliament to solve them". "El-Ganzouri has been trying to embarrass parliament by dumping these problems onto MPs to solve," El-Katatni said. FJP MPs had previously gone so far as to suspend the activities of parliament for one week in protest at the refusal of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to fire the El-Ganzouri government. However, they later changed tack after they faced a wave of reactions from the Salafist Nour Party and liberal deputies, who accused El-Katatni of manipulating parliament in order to serve the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood and under the instructions of its supreme guide Mohamed Badie. The Nour Party directed another blow to the FJP MPs by announcing its support for presidential candidate Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh rather than Brotherhood and FJP candidate Mohamed Mursi. The Nour's parliamentary spokesman Ashraf Thabet said that "El-Katatni's decision to suspend the activities of parliament was a wrong step, and it showed that there is a danger of the Muslim Brotherhood trying to impose its control over parliament, the government and the presidency." Thabet said that the Nour, independent and liberal MPs had also rejected El-Ganzouri's policy statement, but "not to the extent of withdrawing confidence from his government." He added that "the time is very tight, and it would be quite impossible to form a new cabinet in such a short time before a new president is elected." El-Katatni was forced to ask for a meeting with SCAF officials, and it was decided that parliament would not discuss the interpellations in return for a limited cabinet reshuffle. Last Thursday, four cabinet ministers left office and were replaced by new ministers responsible for culture, labour, parliamentary affairs and higher education. El-Ganzouri refused to change the ministers responsible for economic and financial affairs, especially Faiza Abul-Naga, the forceful minister of international cooperation and planning. He also ignored parliament's calls to sack Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim after MPs accused him of not doing enough to prevent the riots that left around 80 people dead after a football match in Port Said on 1 February. El-Katatni told the newly appointed cabinet ministers on Sunday that "we wish you all the best in the upcoming period and look forward to cooperating with you." However, despite this new period of cordial relations between the Islamist MPs and the El-Ganzouri government, some observers do not believe that the hatchet has been buried quite yet. Discussion of the new state budget is expected to see the eruption of another battle between the government and the parliament, with FJP deputies expected to introduce changes to it, especially in the budgetary allocations to the Interior Ministry. The Islamist MPs are also expected to raise questions about the budget of the Armed Forces, this coming after a long period when it was the rule not to discuss the budget of the Armed Forces or the Egyptian intelligence agencies. Ashraf Badreddin, deputy chairman of the parliament's budget committee, said that "the budget will be discussed in detail by MPs this year, and we will do everything possible to strike a balance between the social needs of millions of ordinary Egyptians and the needs of development." The new budget is estimated at LE538 billion, or around $90 billion.
