CAIRO – 28 May 2018: With a busy day in Parliament over, Egypt Today provides a comprehensive wrap up of the Egyptian Parliament’s proceedings for the day and brings you the highlight of the week.
Highlight of the week:
Parliament Solidarity Committee discusses law to establish a National Council for People with Special Needs
The Social Solidarity Committee of the House of Representatives will hold meetings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to discuss a number of draft laws, foremost of which is the consideration of the Prime Minister's decision on the draft law concerning the National Council for People with Special Needs.
The committee will open its three scheduled meetings Tuesday by discussing the government's decision to issue the National Council for People with Special Needs and will look at a draft law submitted by the deputies in this regard.
Invitations to attend the meetings were extended to the Ministries of Justice, Finance and Social Solidarity and representatives of the National Council for Disability Affairs.
The committee will also discuss the draft law of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood submitted by a number of MPs. The committee will conclude its meetings Thursday, discussing a draft law submitted by one of the MPs on the establishment of the National Council for the Care of Orphans Affairs and their guardians.
A look into Egypt's Protection of Antiquities Law
Egyptian tourism has
a quite recovery in 2018 as booking are up by 89 per cent. Yet, the country always suffered from sellers and vendors who have a reputation for harassing tourists. Fortunately, a new law has been put in place by the Egyptian parliament banning street vendors from harassing tourists near popular attractions.
The Parliament has approved the new Protection of Antiquities Law last month, including Article 53 that regulated the penalties of harassing tourists.
Under the new law, “Unless there is a tougher penalty stipulated in any other law, whoever harasses tourists or visitors of archaeological sites or museums, with the intention of begging or promoting, offering or selling a good or service, shall be punished with a fine of not less than LE 3,000 ($169) and not more than LE 10,000.”
MP Ehab al-Tamawy called for toughening the punishment to reach a fine of LE 20,000. Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enani and MP Osama Heikal, head of the Culture and Media Committee in Parliament, supported Tamawy’s suggestion, but other MPs refused to increase the penalty.
Parliament Speaker Ali Abdul Aal said, “There is no such penalty in any other country and the toughening of the punishment will not eradicate the phenomenon. Increasing the awareness about the nuisance of such acts among the society can contribute to ending them.”
Salah to play in World Cup; A phone call from President Sisi raises the top scorer’s morale
President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi
a phone call to the prominent Egyptian player of Liverpool Mohamed Salah on Sunday, to check on his health and make sure that his shoulder recovery is going well.
Through a Facebook post, Sisi affirmed that Salah’s health is getting better; since he is a ‘hero’ that stronger than his injury.
“I have contacted with Egypt’s righteous son, and my son, Mohamed Salah, to check on him after the injury, and as I expected, he is a hero that stronger than the injury and enthusiastic to carry on his journey of heroism and distinction,” Sisi said on his Facebook official page on Sunday, asserting that Salah has become an Egyptian icon of pride and glory.
Commenting on this, Farah Amer, Head of the Youth and Sports Committee in the House of Representatives, said President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s phone call to Mohamed Salah after his injury in the Champions’ League final raised his spirit and will surely help him to recover quickly.
Top news of the day
Foreign Relations Committee meets with a delegation of the United State Congress’ consultants and assistants
After two Egyptian delegations visited the United States’ Congress to enhance the partnership between the two countries and capitalize on expertise, an American delegation has come to Egypt to discuss ways for both countries to cooperate and find ways to mutually support one another, as well as tightening legislative cooperation between the Egyptian parliament and the U.S. Congress.
Aside from the committee, the meeting saw Dana Stroll, senior technical officer at the Senate Minority Affairs Committee, Margaret Taylor, senior adviser to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mira Kogen Resnick, chief technical officer of the Democratic House Committee on Homeland Affairs, and Nicole Burica, legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Tim Kaine.
Local Administration Committee discussed garbage control, bad road conditions
The Local Administration Committee in the House of Representatives held two meetings on Monday to discuss some of the notes submitted by MPs concerning the spread of garbage in the governorates, cities and villages across the country. The notes submitted also addressed the negative effects caused by the spread of garbage, such as the destruction of agrarian products for farmers and their homes and the trashing of the Chest Hospital in Omraneya; these negative aspects are due to lack of recycling and a severe shortage in cleaners, the notes suggested.
The meetings also discussed bad road conditions, the poor condition of the Imbaba bridge, the deterioration of the road network in the city of Al-Saff, as well as delays in the entitlements of workers in special funds, the existence of an imbalance in the population census of Bulaq al-Dakrour region, meaning too many people live there, and the severe shortage of subsidized bread in all governorates.
Members of Parliament call for action:
Social media sites impose danger on Egypt's security
Deputy Member of Parliament's National Security and Defense Committee, Yehia al-Kedwany,
that Social media sites impose danger on the country's security.
Explaining his opinion, he said that social media sites violate the country's traditions and laws as many supportive pages to terrorism are created without observation or censorship.
“I renew my request to the Ministry of Interior to follow up all the Facebook pages that are created to sell monuments, in addition to the pages inciting terrorism,” he said to Egypt Today.
He added that suspicious Facebook pages must be closed immediately and that all pages should be observed and controlled to maintain the national security of the country, stressing that this cannot be considered as narrowing freedoms.
MPs call to impose tax on social media and Google
Members of the Parliament
to impose a tax on advertisements posted on social media websites and Google as it would be an important source of revenues for the treasury.
MP Mustafa Bakri stressed that social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook as well as Google earns millions from posting ads and making use of the Egyptian online news industry, but they find many ways to avoid paying taxes; Bakri criticized the absence of legal mechanisms to impose taxes on them.
In the same context, MP Mohamed Fouad referred that tax collection poses a great problem as most of social media websites do not have representative offices in Egypt; hence, they are not subject to Law No. 9 of 2013 for the stamp tax.
Deputy of the Local Administration Committee calls on the government to develop the cleaning committees in Cairo and Giza
Mohamed al-Husseini, the Deputy of the Local Administration Committee called on the government to present a vision and subsequent plan for the development of the cleaning committee in the governorates of Cairo and Giza. He further called on the government to avoid laying off their cleaning staff.
Husseini added during the meeting, which was headed by Engineer Ahmed El-Sageny Monday, that the development of cleaning bodies are needed, pointing out that the cleaning committee has the capacity to become better and provide a much better service. He also stressed that the cleaning bodies in Cairo and Giza need to be headed by those who have business-oriented minds to ensure they function best, as this would ensure profit and top quality.
In Brief: Foreign Parliaments on Egypt:
Germany seeks to economically support Egypt
On Sunday, during a meeting with Members of Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee in the attendance of German Ambassador in Cairo Julius Georg, Member of Parliament Alexander Radwan
that Germany wants to economically support Egypt and encourage it to play its key role in the region.
“The image of the moderate Islam should be shown to the West, said Radwan, pointing at the important role of Islamic institutions, topped by Al-Azhar,” wrote MENA.
The meeting touched on numerous regional issues including the Syrian, Libyan and Yemeni crises.
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