The People's Assembly [the lower house of Egypt's parliament] witnessed yesterday heated confrontations between the government and MPs due to interpellations about imported bad wheat. MP Saad Aboud, member of Karama Party, accused Trade and Industry Minister Rashid Mohamed Rashid of colluding with an importer to let bad wheat into Egypt. Aboud added that a wheat importer called Mohammed Abdel Fadil had invited a number of ministers to a party after he had been appointed as an adviser to the minister.
Abdel Fadil imported some five million tons of wheat last August and made LE1.5 billion of profits, Aboud said, wondering: Is the Minister the importer's partner? He said: "The importer's father had been working under the leadership of the Chief of the Presidential Staff Zakaria Azmi, who refused to be involved in interpellations on corruption." Once the name of Dr. Zakaria Azmi was said, MPs of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) were agitated and made noise so that Aboud could not unveil information he mentioned in his interpellation. Azmi said former MP Abdel Fadil had left his job in the presidency seven years ago before his son started to import wheat. People's Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour decided to delete the name of Azmi from the minute after getting the parliament's approval. In its second edition, Al-Masry Al-Youm will publish ministers' responses to the interpellations.
