Egypt’s Shura Council prepares to pass protest bill

Muslim Brotherhood members hope to contain ongoing demonstrations Cairo – Khaled Hassanein Egypt\'s upper parliamentary chamber, the Shura Council, is preparing to tackle a cabinet-approved draft bill seeking to regulate demonstrations, following months of unrest commemorating the country’s 2011

Arab Spring revolution.
The bill has been the source of much controversy, attracting anger from opposition political parties and human rights organisations, in recent weeks.
Activists have condemned the prospective law, claiming it represents a significant clampdown on freedom of expression and peaceable assembly.
Figures from the Muslim Brotherhood and its Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) are reportedly looking to push the bill through parliament, in attempts to curb the wave of protests against President Mohammed Morsi.
Ahmed Abdel Halim, Vice President of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR), dismissed the bill as \"unacceptable.\"
“This is not among the Shura Council’s legislative remit,” Halim added.
\"There are many flaws in this law, including the definition of demonstrations and gatherings,” he claimed. \"There are many loopholes that could allow the Interior Ministry to flat-out ban demonstrations.”
Mona Makra Ebeid, a member of both the Shura Council and Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights (NCHR), called the bill “repressive.”
Muslim Brotherhood politicians have been quick to defend the law.
\"We are in the midst of a revolution and the public has a right to stability,” said Ramadan Battikh, a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Shura Council member. “This requires a law to regulate the chaos on Egypt’s streets.”
On the opposition\'s objection to the bill, Battikh claimed: “The law will not be passed in a manner that some people fear,” adding that opposition blocs had judged the law before it had even come into force.