Press Statement by People’s Assembly Speaker on Constitutional Court Ruling
Dr. Mohamed Saad Katatni, Speaker of the Egyptian People’s Assembly (PA) asserted that the PA has so far not received any decisions relating to the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) ruling that supposedly invalidates some articles of parliamentary law.
The PA Speaker, in his first response to the SCC ruling, pointed that fast-circulating media reports on interpretations and analyses – by a number of legal ‘experts’ – of the decision and how it could be enforced, raise many question marks about the timing of its release, coupled with fierce media campaigns vilifying the parliament over the past months, which intensified ever further after the announcement of national consensus on the makeup of the Constituent Assembly entrusted with writing the new charter.
Dr. Katatni was baffled by a possible relationship between this SCC ruling and threats he personally heard before from caretaker Prime Minister Dr. Kamal Ganzouri to the effect that the ruling is ready on the SCC’s desk to dissolve parliament.
The PA Speaker assured that the Egyptian people, who freely and democratically elected their representative MPs in historic free and fair elections for the People's Assembly and Shura Council (the two houses of Egyptian Parliament), are able to re-elect those who will protect the gains made by the revolution, on which some self-interest forces want to pounce.
Dr. Katatni further affirmed that he participated, on Thursday, in a joint meeting between the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP)’s Executive Office and the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau to discuss steps to be taken after the SCC’s most recent decisions.
He stressed that the joint meeting concluded with agreement on the need to continue in the presidential race with the FJP’s candidate, Dr. Mohamed Morsi, as the only option for the Egyptian revolution.
The PA Speaker refuted as totally inaccurate media reports about remarks attributed to him on a certain Facebook page that falsely assumed his name, saying that the statements attributed to him have no basis in truth about an apology he is supposed to offer to the Egyptian people for the performance of parliament.
He added that, since its first session on January 23, 2012 Parliament used all its power to support the Egyptian revolution against repeated attempts by some forces to abort it. Dr. Katatni assured that he is proud of all MPs and their performance, which honored the responsibility the people trusted their MPs with.