Photos: Egyptian National Dialogue’s sub-committees formed; board of trustees’ 5th meeting scheduled for 27 Aug.

CAIRO – 4 August 2022: Egyptian National Dialogue’s board of trustees has completed the formation of the dialogue’s political, economic, and social sub-committees during its fourth meeting on Wednesday.

During the meeting held in the headquarters of the National Training Academy (NTA), the board agreed to hold their fifth meeting on 27 August, where they would prepare for the files and topics set to be discussed during the coming meetings, a statement by the board said.

 

The board has agreed on the final formula of Article no. 18 of its bylaws, granting the board the right to form special and sub-committees when required, with each sub-committee having a rapporteur and an assistant.

 

As per the statement, the sub-committees formed for the dialogue’s political axis are:

1) Exercising political rights, parliamentary representation, and political parties.

2) Municipalities

3) Human rights and public freedoms.

 

For the social axis, the sub-committees agreed upon are:

1) Education file

2) Health file

3) Population file

4) Family and social coherence

5) Culture and national identity

 

For the economic axis, the sub-committees agreed upon are:

1) Inflation and price hike

2) public debt, budget deficit, financial reforms

3) Public investment priorities and state ownership policy

4) Local and foreign private investment

5) Industry

6) Agriculture and food security

7) Social justice

 

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called for the dialogue earlier this year to reach a common ground on the country’s political priorities.

The dialogue’s board earlier agreed on bylaws regulating the work of the Board of Trustees, which will be published on the dialogue’s website soon.

In a press conference following the first board meeting in July, General Coordinator and Head of the Journalists’ Syndicate Diaa Rashwan affirmed that those who practiced or incited violence, on top of which is the Muslim Brotherhood group, will not be allowed to participate in the dialogue, according to the board’s decision.

 

He added that those who do not recognize the legitimacy of the 2014 constitution also will be exempted from the dialogue.

During the first board meeting, Rashwan said those who killed innocent Egyptians or incited murders cannot be part of the dialogue because they do not acknowledge the constitution.

Meanwhile, all segments of the society, all political parties and unions are represented in the dialogue, he noted.

Rashwan underscored that the dialogue must culminate in legislative or executive proposals that can be presented to Sisi so people see actual procedures resulting from the initiative.

Participants highlighted that the dialogue focuses on the output, and that it is not a place for declaring personal positions, but rather on discussions that lead to serious proposals.

A number of participants have affirmed that those who involve religion into politics should be excluded from the dialogue as the state is heading toward being a modern and civil state.

Participants agreed on setting a time frame, with six months as a ceiling, for the dialogue and to announce regularly what the dialogue has achieved.

Participants touched on prisoners who have not been released despite spending the maximum remand time, and that releasing them must be followed by legislative corrections to prevent the phenomenon from reoccurring.

Some members also claimed that some prisoners accused of belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood are not related to the Islamist group by any means, rendering their charges false.

Rashwan said there are no limits to the dialogue, except accepting a civil state and the constitution.