Following an urgent meeting held Saturday in the Cabinet headquarters in downtown Cairo, PM Ibrahim Mahlab has submitted his government's resignation to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Sisi, who accepted the cabinet's resignation, has commissioned the resigned government as a caretaker one till a new cabinet is formed following the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for by the end of 2015, according to sources. The sources added the head of the Suez Canal Authority, LT. GEN. Mohab Mamish would lead the new government. The daily Yum 7 News reported al-Sisi had commissioned Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Wealth in the resigned government, Sherif Ismail to form a new government within a week as of Sept. 12. The cabinet's resignation comes days after a scandal of corruption with the Minister of Agriculture, Salah el-Dine Hilal and his aides detained over receiving bribes worth over $1 million. A large number of ministers in the resigned government have been under criticism for bad performance as well as accusations of corruption. The Minister of Education, Moheb Rafey has been rebuked over an educational scandal with a topper high school girl getting zero in all her seven exams. Earlier this week, Mahlab himself has been severely slammed for a comic withdrawal from a press conference with his Tunisian counterpart on the back of a question on his government's alleged corruption. Sisi has praised the resigned government for "taking the responsibility in a very sensitive period in the nation's history". Mahlab, formerly the Minister of Housing, took office on June 9, a day after al-Sisi was elected as the country's president. When he was sworn in, Mahlab said his top priorities were to restore stability, to fight escalating terror and to improve public services.
