CAIRO: Essam Mokhtar, member of the Muslim Brotherhood Parliamentary bloc in the Egyptian Parliament, has welcomed the government's decision to end discussion over the proposed demolition of Hagana Farm. He considered the decision as a positive measure to alleviate the outrage that had engulfed the street. In his statement to Parliament, he held the government responsible for “allowing contractors to build housing and raise buildings before interfering.” Hagana Farm is an Egyptian slum located just outside Cairo proper in “Kilo 4.5″ and is home to thousands of residents. The new construction is part of the country's efforts to build up these areas. It is mostly funded privately. He claimed that the government neglected these problems, failing to “remove the transgressions and irregularities and delaying the destruction and demolition of the high rise buildings after it was built. These buildings cost innocent citizens most of their savings.” Mokhtar also commended the police forces, which he says “exercised self-controlled in responding to the citizens' anger and outrage, which resulted in the injury of three officers and 14 soldiers.” The Housing Committee and the Local Administration in the Parliament, called for the referral of executive officials to the General Prosecution for their failure in complying to regulations and decrees in the construction of many residential buildings in Hagana Farm. The committee also called for the demolishing to end, stressing the “importance of the government's role in examining the slums,” adding that it is the Ministry of Housing's responsibility to issue temporary building permits for citizens. In a related story, a large number of MPs called for the dismissal of Cairo's governor, Abdel Azim Wazir, and his transfer to prosecutor for his “irresponsibility.” The MPs also reported they witnessed “scandalous” actions during the demolition of the buildings in Hagana Farm, where they saw “officials from the local administrative departments holding auctions for citizens reaching LE 10,000 pounds to cancel the demolition decisions.” MP Ibrahim Abu Auf, member of the MB parliamentary bloc, stressed that “it seems corruption and bribery proves stronger than the decrees which are issued by the president and the Council of Ministers which are obviously not respected.” He criticized the Parliament's approach and division, pointing out the need to have all MPs working together in the best interest of citizens. Youssri Al-Bayoumi, member of the MB Parliamentary bloc, stressed that the residents of Hagana Farm were fortunate that the police controlled its forces adding the necessity of the establishment of a ministry for the slums. BM
