The resignation of Transport Minister Mohamed Mansour on Tuesday stirred up a hectic debate over the political responsibility of cabinet ministers, Gamal Essam El-Din reports In response to pressure from the furious public, newspapers, MPs and Chief of Presidential Staff Zakaria Azmi, Minister of Transport Mohamed Mansour was forced to resign on Tuesday. A presidential spokesman said President Hosni Mubarak had accepted Mansour's resignation, in which he took full responsibility for the train accident which killed 18 and injured 36 on the night of 24 October. Minister of Electricity Hassan Younis has taken over the Transport Ministry until a new minister is sworn in. Mansour's resignation on Tuesday took many by surprise. Two days earlier, on Sunday, in a telephone interview with Al-Beit Beitak, a daily TV show on Al-Masriya satellite channel, he insisted he would not leave office. "I am responsible for the transportation system in Egypt and I will not step down from my position or relinquish my responsibility for modernising the railway system in Egypt," he told viewers. On Monday Mansour told an angry emergency meeting of the People's Assembly's Transport and Telecommunications Committee that the accident was a result of "human error". He insisted that he "did not intend to listen to those who ask me to resign". Instead he referred 34 officials from the National Railway Authority (NRA) to an investigative committee examining the causes of the collision of the two passenger trains. National Democratic Party (NDP) insiders say Mansour was ordered to resign by the president's office. An NDP MP, who asked not to be named, told Al-Ahram Weekly that "President Mubarak knew about the sharp attacks which Mansour faced in the People's Assembly on Monday and ordered that he submit his resignation at once." "It was necessary for Mansour to step down so as not to cause embarrassment for the ruling party ahead of its conference next Saturday." In the committee's stormy meeting Mansour faced a barrage of attacks from MPs and Azmi, who in addition to being the chief of the presidential staff is also the NDP's assistant secretary-general. "We cannot accept that this crash was the result of human error," said Azmi, arguing that "Mansour is politically and constitutionally responsible for the performance of railway staff." Azmi drew the attention of MPs to the outraged town of coverage of the incident in the press, from opposition to national newspapers, and urged his NDP colleagues not to further antagonise public opinion by showering praise on Mansour. "We are not here to offer thanks for the minister or review his past achievements. We are here to see what we can do to contain public anger." Azmi was applauded by opposition MPs while NDP deputies opted to rally behind the minister. "This is a rich man who has never travelled in a third class train or seen how poor people can lose their lives because of negligence," said Hussein Ibrahim, the Muslim Brotherhood's parliamentary spokesman, referring to Mansour's multimillion pound business interests before joining the cabinet. "It is high time senior officials in this negligent government began to pay the price for their incompetence rather than the lowliest employees." Brotherhood MP Kamaleddin Nour noted that parliament's Transport and Telecommunications Committee had repeatedly drawn Mansour's attention to the poor condition of rail services in Upper Egypt. "Unfortunately," said Nour, "all the calls went unheard." Spurning Azmi's advice, NDP MPs rushed to Mansour's defence. Ahmed Abu Akrab, an NDP representative from Upper Egypt, insisted it was "a complete injustice to ask for Mansour's resignation before we know the full results of the investigation into the accident." "It is important to recall," Abu Akrab argued, "that when Mansour came to office in 2005 the performance of the NRA was at its lowest ebb and he has worked hard to improve it." A verbal defence of the minister was not enough for NDP MP and chairman of the Agriculture Committee Abdel-Rehim El-Ghoul, who became embroiled in fisticuffs with Brotherhood MP Mahmoud Megahed after the latter demanded Mansour submit his resignation. Mansour pointed out that since he came to office in 2005 the number of train accidents has dropped dramatically. "Last Saturday's Ayyat train crash was the first accident in three years. When I took office there had been a deadly train crash every year for the previous five years." Mansour also underlined that the improvement in safety had taken place at a time when passenger numbers were increasing, having climbed to 1.4 million per day in the last three years. He stressed that of the LE8 billion approved in 2006 for upgrading railway services LE4.6 billion had already been spent, the bulk on importing new locomotives and spare parts. President Mubarak's acceptance of Mansour's resignation was praised by opposition MPs. "This decision provides a lesson in respect for the supervisory role of the People's Assembly," said independent MP Alaa Abdel-Moneim. His colleague, Wafdist MP Salah El-Sayegh, told the Weekly that Mansour's resignation "served notice on all cabinet ministers that they are ultimately responsible for the functioning of their departments". Mansour is not the first transport minister to be forced to step down. In February 2002, transport minister Ibrahim El-Dumeiri was forced to resign in response to a tragic train fire, also near Ayyat. The accident, which was the worst train disaster in Egypt's 155-year-old history, left 360 dead. Egypt is second only to England in introducing a railtrack system into the country. (see p.3)
