CAIRO - More and more people are calling for the Upper House of Parliament, known as the Shura (Advisory) Council, to be eliminated. They include political activists, senior writers and journalists, legal advisers and even former MPs, who once served in the disgraced Shura Council, which, together with the People's Assembly (the Lower House of Parliament), was disbanded days after the outbreak of the recent revolution. Cynically planning to buy its members' loyalty, the former president gave himself the right to appoint a third of the Shura Council's deputies; and, thanks to systematic election rigging planned by Mubarak's regime, the other two-thirds conveniently belonged to the disbanded ruling National Democratic Party. The Shura Council was born of a referendum held on April 19, 1979. A year later, constitutional amendments created the two articles 194 and 195, which stipulated that the Shura Council should help preserve the principles of the two revolutions. These were the 23 July 1952 and 15 May 1979 revolutions, championed respectively by late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser and his successor, Anwar Sadat. The two constitutional articles also stipulated that the Shura Council should be concerned with preserving national unity, social peace and justice, and the reinforcing the belonging of the nation's working class and peasants. Mahmoud el-Khedeiri, the former deputy head of the Court of Cassation (the highest court in Egypt), says that the creation of the Shura Council was a criminal waste of public money. He explains that hundreds of millions of taxpayers' pounds were squandered every year on this advisory council, to 'reward and win the loyalty of the former regime's cronies and other self-interested people'. “The Shura Council evolved into a den for Mubarak's cronies and lobbyists. Their loyalty was rewarded with seats on this Council and parliamentary immunity.” A political activist, however, refused to exonerate Mubarak's predecessor, Sadat, who ruled from 1970 to 1981. According to Yehia el-Gazaz, an influential member of both the Kefaya (Enough) and the 9 March movements, it was Sadat, who distributed Shura Council seats as sops to his opponents, persuading them to stop attacking his presidency. El-Gazaz, who is also a university professor, says that the Shura Council has never contributed to political life. Veteran journalist Amina el-Nakkash, who is the Deputy Chairwoman of the leftist Tagammu (Unionist Progressive) Party, said that she'd like the Shura Council to be eliminated, as it's a terrible waste of money and does nothing. However, she says that the National Dialogue Committee, recent set up by the Essam Sharaf Government, should have the final say about this. Meanwhile, renowned Professor of an agency overseeing the press controlled political science and economics Hassan Nafaa has accused the Mubarak regime of using the Shura Council to manipulate and discipline the local press, especially the opposition newspapers. “The Higher Press Council helped the Shura Council get away with this outrageous behaviour,” he said, referring to the Shura Council.
