The Nour Party representative for the 50-member constitution-drafting committee, Bassem Al-Zarka, has stepped down from the role for health reasons. The Nour Party representative for the 50-member constitution-drafting committee, Bassem Al-Zarka, has stepped down from the role for health reasons. Members of the Nour Party on the alternative list are Mohamed Saad El-Azhary and Ibrahim Mansour. Makhioun affirmed Al-Zarka only stepped down for health reasons, emphasising that otherwise he wouldn't have left the committee, which is tasked with amending the 2012 suspended constitution. On Monday, Al-Zarka withdrew from a constitution-drafting session in protest over how the meeting was run, accusing certain committee members of "excluding views" from the discussion. The dispute was over Islamic-related articles in the suspended 2012 constitution, which have caused controversy among the 50-committee members. At the time, Makhioun said "Al-Zarqa's withdrawal from the meeting doesn't mean he's withdrawing from the 50-member committee." The Nour Party, along with other Islamist forces - predominantly Muslim Brotherhood representatives - dominated Egypt's 2012 constituent assembly under former president Mohamed Morsi. Nour is the only Islamist party represented in the current constitution-drafting body. Source: Ahram Online
