CAIRO: The advisory council appointed by SCAF to assist it in governing the country will hold its first meeting on Sunday, Emad Adel Ghaffour, head of Al-Nour Party and council member told Daily News Egypt on Friday. The council will elect its president and two deputies in the first meeting, he said. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) issued a decree Thursday night to establish an advisory council to help it run the country until a new president is elected by the end of June 2012. The new council is made up of 30 members, bringing together political party leaders, politicians, presidential hopefuls, legal experts and cultural figures. Members include presidential hopefuls Mohamed Selim El-Awa and Amr Moussa, the head of Al-Wasat Party Abul Ela Mady, head of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, Mohamed Nour Farahat, telecom mogul and founder of the Free Egyptians party Naguib Sawiris, Sameh Ashour, head of the Lawyers' Syndicate and Judge Tahani El-Gebali, deputy head of the Supreme Constitutional Court. Presidential hopefuls Mohamed ElBaradei and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, refused to join. The council will have the liberty to add new members to guarantee a diversity of opinion and advice given to SCAF, according to the statement. "We can add more members to the council upon the agreement of the majority of the council's members," Ashour told DNE. The council's role is entirely consutative, as all final decisions will be left to SCAF, he added. "I believe the military council is sincere about establishing this council and intends to consider its advice and accept it," Ashour said. Political analyst Emad Gad agreed saying that SCAF needs a civilian advisory council to assist and advise it in making decisions that will set the path for Egypts future. Youth groups however, refused SCAF's invitation to join the council, describing it as "cosmetic." "The only purpose of this council is to serve SCAF and help improve its distorted public image," Mohamed Abbas, member of the Revolutionary Youth Coalition said. SCAF has been under fire for months for allegedly mishandling the transitional period and for committing human rights violations since it took power on Feb 11, following an 18-day revolt which ousted ex-president Hosni Mubarak. According to a statement issued by SCAF on its facebook page, the council's role in advising SCAF on laws and international treaties would end once an elected parlaiment convenes in March. The council's first mission will be to discuss draft laws regarding presidential elections and the mechanism for electing the constituent assembly responsible for drafting the new constitution. Ashour explained that the council will be responsible for drafting the criteria for selecting members of the 100-strong assembly to guarantee that it represents all Egyptians. Abdel Ghaffour agreed, stressing that these regulations will not clash with parlaiment's legitimacy in electing the assembly. On Nov. 18, mass protests took place in Tahrir Square against a document of constitutional principles proposed by then Deputy Prime Minister Ali El-Selmy, regulating the selection of the constituent assembly and guaranteeing the secrecy of the military budget. " The new regulations will be nothing like those in El-Selmy's document," Abdel Ghaffour said. "It will only include general guidelines guaranteeing that all Egypt factions are represented without determining specific numbers and that's something that all political powers agree on." However, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood's (MB) political arm, withdrew from the council in objection to this very point, which they described as "illigitimate." According to the March referendum and the constitutional decree based on it, the PA elected by the people should be responsible for selecting the constituent assembly. On Wednesday, SCAF General Mukhtar Al-Molla told foreign press that the ruling council would appoint a civilian advisory council to approve the constituent assembly, along with the interim government. Al-Molla told the group of foreign journalists that the military wouldn't intervene directly in the constitutional process. Instead, the advisory council “would make suggestions to the military council while also representing the military council to parliament." Al-Molla also said in the conference that the new parliament didn't represent all of the Egyptian people, indirectly referring to Islamist parties which won around 88 percent of the vote in the first round of elections. “Do you think that the Egyptians elected someone to threaten their interests and Egypt's economy and security and relations with international community?” Al-Molla was quoted as saying in the New York Times (NYT). “Of course not.” FJP head Mohamed Morsi and the party's assistant Secretary General Osama Yassin withdrew from council after the controversial statements were published. However, Sameh and Abdel Ghaffour denied that the advisory council would have any say on approving the elected constituent assembly, "we will just draft the general guidelines governing how the will PA it." Gad agreed opinion, accusing the FJP of aspiring to dominate the assembly to write the constitution on their own, without the consensus of all Egyptian factions. The FJP snatched 36.6 percent of the 9.7 million valid votes for party lists and 36 out of 56 single-winner seats in the first round of elections, in an indication that they may well dominate parliament. Following the withdrawal of the FJP, SCAF urged all political powers to join the council, not obstain "during this critical period of our nation's history." The council is scheduled to meet at least once a week and meet with SCAF at least once a month, unless it's summoned. If summoned at, at least one third of its members must attend SCAF meetings.
