MPs slams Minister of Information in Egypt’s Parliament, demand his resignation

CAIRO – 20 January 2020: Members of Egypt’s House of Representatives criticized Minister of State for Information Osama Heikal heavily during a Tuesday session saying that he is holding two official posts at the same time namely as the Minister of Information and President of Media Production City, which is clear violation of the constitution and the law.

 They added that Heikal ‘should not be talking about any of his ministry achievements during the past four year before the parliament, as instead, it turned to be a burden over the state’s shoulders’

The MPs demanded Heikal to refund all of the money he took from the state during holding the two posts, noting the minster was engaging in a lot of disputes with most of the media workers during the past period.

“I wonder about the reason behind giving two posts at the same time for a one person, Is it because there are no cadres in the country to hold positions instead of violating the constitution and the law?”, Majority Leader in Parliament MP Ashraf Rashad said during the session.

MP Mahmoud Badr also said that Heikal gave noting to the parliament in his speech but ‘procrastination for all solutions’, when other ministers were discussing the achievements of their ministries before the newly-elected parliament.

MP Hend Rashan who works as a host at the state’s television revealed that ‘Maspero’ (state-run broadcasting building) is actually suffering from many problems waiting to be solved since a long time.

Several other MPs including Tamer Abdel Qader, Ayat Al-Haddad and Mustafa Bakry slammed the official actions and eventually demanded him to resign.

Heikal presented before the parliament along with all of the government’s officials upon a summoning from the newly-elected parliament for the Prime Minister and his cabinet, to issue a full report on the government achievements during the past four years in accordance with the constitution.

In a previous session held on January 18, Prime Minster Mostafa Madboli explained in his speech before the parliament, the government achievements from 2018 to 2020.

He started his speech thanking the previous parliament members saying that the government collaborated with them and helped them during a very important period in which the country faced the threat of Covid-19 pandemic. He also thanked pervious speaker Ali Abdel Aal.

Madboli added that the parliament helped the government to avoid the hard effects of COVID-19 which affected the whole world during the past period. He said that Egypt was one of the best countries in the world in dealing with COVID-19 pandemic after allocating up to LE 100 billion to confront the repercussions of the coronavirus and increase the wages of workers.

The primes minster noted that Egypt to is expected achieve self-sufficiency in petroleum products by 2023, after achieving self-sufficiency in natural gas in 2019.

He also noted that the government managed to achieved self-sufficiency in energy with investments exceeding LE34 billion during the past four years. And shed light upon the poverty, inflation and unemployment rates after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The inaugural session of 2021’s parliament was held on January 12, as the parliament members elected their new speaker and two deputies.