CAIRO: Egypt's Administrative Court decided to halt the formation of the Constituent Assembly, which is intended to create Egypt's new constitution. The Egyptian administrative court on Tuesday blocked Parliament's decision to create a new constitution-writing assembly, challenging the legitimacy of a body that has been criticized for its domination by Islamists. The Cairo Administrative Court “halts the implementation of the decision by the Parliament's speaker to form the Constitutional Assembly to draft the constitution,” Judge Ali Fekry told the court. It should be noted that the Islamists in Parliament have insisted on having MPs on the constitution-writing panel, but liberal voices backed by legal experts said lawmakers' writing a constitution is unprecedented. Tuesday's verdict can be appealed. Once the verdict is issued by the higher court, the verdict would be final. The verdict followed a lawsuit decrying the domination of Islamist political group on a large portion of the panel's 100 seats. It should be mentioned that the Egyptian Parliament formed the Constituent Assembly in late March to draft the country's new constitution.
