CAIRO: Secretary General of Egypt's formerly ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), Mohamed Ragab, has dismissed at least 21 leading party members, including former president Hosni Mubarak. Most of those dismissed were former ministers and prominent businessmen closely associated with Mubarak. The Secretary General also called for a meeting to elect a new President for the party after the dismissal of Mubarak. He said the decision to dismiss and accept the resignations of these leading NDP figures comes amid efforts to cleanse the party of those who are currently prosecuted or facing corruption charges and those who were known as the old and new guards of the regime of Hosni Mubarak. The list of the dismissals and resignations includes: steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz; businessman Mohammed Aboul Enein; former Minister of Industry and Trade Rashid Mohamed Rashid; former Minister of Interior Habib al-Adly; former Minister of Agriculture, Amin Abaza; former Minister of Housing Ahmed El- Maghraby; and businessman Hisham Talat Mustafa. Also among the names of those dismissed were former Minister of Tourism Mohamed Zuheir Garrana; former Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy; former Minister of housing Ibrahim Soliman; former Transport Minister Mohamed Mansour; former Media Minister Anas El-Fiqi; head of the Radio and Television Unit Osama El-Sheikh; former Finance Minister Yousef Butrous Ghali; and former head of industrial development Amr Assal. Gamal Mubarak, younger son of the former president and former Secretary General of the NDP's Policy Committee, tendered his resignation on Thursday, as did Safwat el-Sherif, Secretary General of the NDP; Mofid Shehab, former Minister of legal and parliamentary affairs; and Ali el-Din Helal, the NDP's Secretary for Information. BM
