Yet more interpellations seeking to embarrass the government are due to be discussed in the People's Assembly, reports Gamal Essam El-Din Undeterred by what one MP terms "a host of deliberate and arbitrary measures" aimed at preventing them from fully exercising their supervisory role, opposition and independent members of the People's Assembly remain determined to challenge the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif with more interpellations. A total of 107 have been submitted so far. On Saturday the assembly is scheduled to fix a timetable for discussion of 11 more interpellations, nine submitted by Muslim Brotherhood MPs and one each by representatives of Wafd and Tagammu. The first of the Brotherhood's interpellations targets Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, accusing him of failing to ensure security at the Egyptian Museum. The failure, alleges Brotherhood MP Azab Mustafa, has caused the loss of 131 unique artefacts with a market value of $650 million. Mustafa has submitted three other interpellations covering a range of socio- economic issues. The first two seek to blame the government of Ahmed Nazif for worsening living conditions in Cairo's slums and for the failure to control basic food prices. Mustafa's third interpellation demands the sacking of Minister of Education Yosri El-Gamal. Ibrahim El-Gaafari, another Brotherhood MP, has directed interpellations at the minister of communications and information technology citing allegations of graft within the Arab Republic of Egypt Telecommunications Organisation (ARENTO). Brotherhood MP Mohsen Radi takes Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul-Naga to task for what he calls "the loss and abuse of huge foreign assistance funds directed to establish a number of development projects". He is joined by El-Mohamedi Abdel-Maqsoud who accuses the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs of squandering its budget rather than addressing problems as basic as the disposal of garbage in Egypt's cities. The Wafdist interpellation, submitted by Salah El-Sayigh, is directed at the ministers of interior and local administration, implicating them in the loss of 62,000 feddans of public land east of the Suez Canal which, he claims, have been handed to a mafia of real estate moguls and construction magnates. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz Shaaban, the Tagammu's only parliamentary representative, directs a question at Nazif, cautioning him against implementing the proposal, announced on 10 November by Gamal Mubarak, chairman of the ruling National Democratic Party's (NDP) powerful Policies Committee, to allocate stakes in 151 public sector companies to the 41 million Egyptians above the age of 21. Leftists politicians have repeatedly claimed the scheme is part of a hidden agenda to allow business tycoons access to shares in public assets at knockdown prices. The most recent batch of interpellations follows a stormy session on 16 December in which the government faced 12 questions on the import of substandard wheat. Again the interpellations were submitted by Brotherhood and leftist MPs. They allege that over a period of two months the government imported more than two million tonnes of substandard wheat from Russia and the Ukraine. Brotherhood MP Farid Ismail insists that examination of imported wheat at a number of Egyptian ports confirmed that it was of low quality while leftist firebrand Saad Abboud alleged that a single businessman was able to import more than five million tonnes of substandard wheat without examination. Ismail and Abboud joined forces to argue that opening the foreign trade sector to private competition has seen the local market flooded with substandard agricultural produce. At the same time, they claimed, the government has scrapped plans -- the national five-year development plan of 1991-1996 aimed to increase land cultivated with wheat by one million feddans to boost self- sufficiency from 55 per cent in the early 1990s to more than 70 per cent by 2012 -- to grow more grain. Refuting the accusations, Minister of Foreign Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid said investigations by the Central Auditing Agency found "all imports of wheat to Egypt were of a high quality and conformed to the strict specifications of the Egyptian Quality Control Agency". "Rumours and opposition allegations," said Rachid, were the result of conflicts of interest among private sector importers "some of whom give false information to MPs with the intention of harming their rivals". Minister of Agriculture Amin Abaza said plans to increase wheat cultivation were ongoing but limited water resources restricted how much land could be devoted to cereals. The Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies' annual Arab Strategic Report, issued last week, blamed the speaker of the People's Assembly, Fathi Sorour, for imposing arbitrary restrictions on the discussion of interpellations. The report criticised Sorour for rejecting interpellations not corroborated by official documents and limiting the debate of each question to between 20 and 30 minutes. Next week the assembly's Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to discuss an information request by NDP MP Mohamed Khalil Qiwita concerning the demand that the United Kingdom pay Egypt 28 billion pounds sterling as compensation for 72 years of occupation. Qiwita also alleges that Britain borrowed 3 million pounds sterling from Egypt during World War I. The committee will discuss the impact of the new security treaty between Iraq and the United States on the Middle East. The Arab Affairs Committee is scheduled to debate worsening conditions in Gaza and Israel's expected military offensive there.
