Abul-Naga: Parliament cannot dissolve government

After parliamentary calls to dismiss Prime Minister Dr. Kamal El-Ganzouri -led interim government, Egypt's Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Fayza Abul-Naga, citing last year's constitutional declaration, has said the People's Assembly has no such authority to do so. Fayza Abul-Naga, the minister who has been behind the US NGO ruckus 'Political' foreign funding of parties and NGOs not accepted, has declared that Egypt's Parliament is not legally entitled to issue a vote of no-confidence in the current interim government. Nor, she said, was it entitled to appoint a new government. Abul-Naga stressed that the constitutional declaration, issued one year ago by Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) , did not give the parliament the authority to replace the interim SCAF-appointed government. "Those calling for the dismissal of the current government should read the constitutional declaration before making such claims," the minister told a press conference here late Wednesday. Last weekend, the Freedom and Justice Party's Farid Ismail, head of Parliament's defence and national security committee, charged that the incumbent government of Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri had appointed numerous members of the ousted Mubarak regime to important government posts and should therefore be relieved of its duties. The Freedom and Justice Party's Farid Ismail, the Secretary General of the Defence and National Security committee at the People's Assembly, said Kamal El-Ganzouri's government has been appointing many of the former regime remnants in governmental institutions. He gave examples of the Mubarak regime flyovers who are still holding positions in Ali Meselhi, a former NDP political committee member, and ex-transportation minister Alaa Fahmy. Both have been installed as consultants at the Egypt Postal Authority. Ismail also voiced disgruntlement with El-Ganzouri's speech on political and economic conditions in the country to parliament, which he gave before the People's Assembly last week. "The committees of the People's Assembly reject El-Ganzouri's statement, and thus will begin with the procedures of a vote-of-no-confidence in the parliamentary session on 11 March," he said.