CAIRO: The Shura Council (SC) discussed and decided on Monday to finalize nine agreements for drilling and searching for petroleum and natural gas in Egypt. The discussion of the estimated 412-page draft agreements lasted an hour and half. Deputy Mohammed Farid Zakaria objected to the way the government pushes such important agreements through the SC. He told The Daily Star Egypt that he will send a letter to Guinness Book of Records notify them that the Egyptian upper house of Parliament have broken a world in the speed of passing laws. He explained that according to the SC mandate, when a new law is tabled for discussion at the SC, the initial debate is on whether the law is acceptable on principal. If the assembly agrees that it is, then they begin discussing the articles one by one. "The SC members doesn't have the chance to discuss the agreements because the government presents them all in one session, and gives every member just three minutes to make a decision, which means that I have to reach an opinion on every law in 20 seconds, he said. He asked: "How can I examine 412 pages in that short time? This could only mean that they don't the assembly seriously or they want to pass some thing illegal. Most of the agreements concerned the Western Desert which Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy describes as a promising area for petroleum discoveries in the future. Deputy Nabil Luka Bibawy noted that the draft of agreements they discussed did not mention how the companies were selected, and which other companies which had joined the tender. Mufid Shihab, government minister in charge of parliamentary affairs, replied to Bibawy's query by saying that more than one company participated in the bid which the government announced publicly. According to the constitution the SC must agree on any new laws before they are discussed at the People's Assembly. The SC's opinion is consultative.
