Parliament held the government responsible for the escalation of the truck drivers' crisis that lead to a strike for the fifth day in a row. It accused certain ministries of having been unable to handle the crisis from the very beginning, as they did not provide accurate figures on the volume of that sector, nor did they assess the serious effect of that strike on the economy. Hamdi el-Tahan, head of the Transport Committee, said the council is willing to introduce amendments to the new traffic law that has instigated the crisis, particularly as regards extending the deadline of banning the trailers if the Ministry of Transport provided more accurate figures than the estimated 18,400 trailers. He said Council Speaker Dr. Fathi Sorour has agreed to this, and to consider a proper compensation for the transport capacity, which is estimated at 50 million tons transported by trailers, based on the rate of newly imported trailers reaching 512 in December. On the other hand, the truck owners refused to end the strike, and demanded guarantees to what was agreed upon in last Mondays meeting of the Transport Association with the government officials and parliament deputies.
