The General Committee of the People's Assembly [Egypt's lower chamber of Parliament] condemned some MPs' choice to express their opinions by raising shoes, standing on their seats and shouting during the discussions. In a statement issued yesterday after its meeting, the committee said such conducts contradicted all parliamentary traditions and values. At the beginning of the general session, Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour slammed these MPs and threatened to refer them to the Ethics Committee if they behaved in such way once more. Referring to MB MPs, Sorour said they had tarnished the image of the People's Assembly, wondering: "Are they really Muslims?" Sorour criticized the fact that some MPs filed their interpellations on satellite TV channels first and then at the Assembly, referring in particular to MB Block Spokesperson Hamdy Hassan. Mr. Hassan, though, defended himself by saying the secretariat general had refused the interpellation saying there was not enough evidence. "Do the Israeli aggression and the government's connivance with Israel need any evidence?" he wondered. Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Councils Minister Mufid Shehab refused the accusation of treachery leveled at the government while hostility against Israel is growing in the public opinion and Egypt is doing all it can to defend the Palestinian people. "If the MPs are seeking fame, they should win it through their performance at the People's Assembly and not through TV channels" Sorour said.
