CAIRO: Deputy Prime Minister Yehia Al-Gamal was assigned to head a national reconciliation committee of 197 members, representing political streams, trade unions and religious institutions, to pen a draft for the new constitution. "The committee will include a representative of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the Cabinet as well as youth movements and civil society groups and will hold its sessions at the conferences hall," Al-Gamal said in a press conference at Al-Wafd Party late Wednesday. The new constitution will be drafted after the legislative elections in September. Al-Gamal said the Cabinet has formed a committee to retrieve stolen public funds from abroad, supervised by the Ministry of Justice, and has also decided to reclaim offices of the National Democratic Party (NDP) as state property. A decision to disband the party is left up to the judiciary, he added. "The remnants of the ousted regime and the NDP are trying to create a counter-revolution in addition to foreign hands that don't want democratic transformation in Egypt," Al-Gamal said. Addressing concerns over the rise of the religious stream, he confirmed that the formation of a religious state will not be allowed. "A religious state is worse than a totalitarian one; we want a civil democratic state," he said. "I know that there are concerns over the formation of the next parliament but I trust the choices of the Egyptian people," Al-Gamal added. Salafi groups will not be allowed to establish political parties based on religion, as per the constitutional decree, and they will not be part of the reconciliation committee since these groups are not an official entity. On another note, Al-Wafd's shadow government presented a "democratic transformation plan" that comprises six different paths beginning from the end of Mubarak's regime to establishing democracy and ending with launching a comprehensive national development plan. The shadow government called for prosecuting Mubarak and other ousted regime figures in military courts with charges of damaging political life in the country. "The way the revolution's demands are dealt with doesn't apply the revolutionary ideology and doesn't comply with the revolution's aims," said Ali Al-Selamy, prime minister of the shadow government. He demanded that the Cabinet present a specific plan and work program for the transitional period, canceling the new national security agency and using the national security council affiliated with the Egyptian Intelligence instead.
