an introduction :

The Egyptian Parliament has come close to reaching half the term of the first session of the first legislative term of the House of Representatives, and in this period Parliament witnessed a strong movement by the committees at the level of ratification of agreements or decisions and discussion of sometimes inflammatory and ordinary laws. Parliament during this period did not have any direct effect and did not issue So far, any completed legislation of those legislation is hoped to be promulgated before the end of the first session, and the same period witnessed the involvement of the Council's specific committees in discussing the items of the proposed state budget 2016/2017

This report comes as part of a follow-up Maat for Peace, Development and Human Association For parliamentary performance by monitoring and analysis, in order to build a real legislative institution that can work to realize the dreams of the Egyptian people. The report covers the period from May 11, 2016 to June 10, 2016.

This report is based on an aggregate of what has been published on news sites specialized in parliamentary affairs, as well as the statements and meetings of the MPs, television and press, and their personal pages on social networking sites.

The report focused on monitoring the legislations approved and discussed by parliament during the period it covers, and the report also monitors the oversight role of parliament on the performance of the state’s executive bodies and the relationship between parliamentarians and the executive bodies. The report also displays foreign visits to the parliament and also the parliament’s reception of diplomats from other countries at the official level.

First: The legislative performance of Parliament:

For the fifth month in a row, the parliament did not come out of any of the legislation that the Egyptian people hope to be promulgated, especially those that directly affect their daily life, such as the Civil Service Law raised around it since it rejected the parliament in the first month of its session, also the people and political and civil forces are still waiting for pictures The Local Administration Law, which everyone considers the last building block in the stability of the Egyptian situation after the many crises that the state has experienced over the past five years. Otherwise, the most prominent proposals and draft laws discussed by Parliament are as follows: -

• Representative Faraj Amer, head of the Youth and Sports Committee in the House of Representatives, submitted a bill to toughen penalties in the event that a public employee causes a fire inside public facilities due to negligence and failure to implement civil protection instructions and a fine as well.
• The Manpower Committee in the House of Representatives is currently preparing a report on the draft law that the committee discussed and approved for amending some provisions of Law No. 35 of 1976 issuing the Trade Union Law, and it will submit it to the Parliament Office headed by Dr. Ali Abdel-Al, in preparation for presentation to the House for issuance in the coming days.
• Deputy Mohamed Fouad, a spokesman for the parliamentary committee of the Wafd Party, said that the party has formally submitted its draft of the local administration law, pointing out that the party has now started in the stage of marketing the project among the deputies, as the party has printed 594 copies for distribution to all members of the House of Representatives, including an explanation of the law and comparisons. Between him and other projects submitted to the local administration committee, pointing out that the party will take over the task of explaining it to the representatives at a future stage
• The government sent the youth bill to Dr. Ali Abdel-Al, Speaker of Parliament, in preparation for referring it to the Youth and Sports Committee for discussion, as well as the text of the explanatory memorandum attached to the draft law
• The House of Representatives Suggestions and Complaints Committee approved the proposal regarding legal standards for state-owned lands, in the presence of a representative of the Ministry of Justice, and decided to refer it to the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee
• The House of Representatives Suggestions and Complaints Committee, headed by Representative Hammam Al-Adly, approved the proposal for a bill submitted by Representative Abdel Moneim Al-Alimi to amend some provisions of Law No. 39 of 1975 regarding the rehabilitation of the disabled, and some provisions of the Social Insurance Law No. 79 of 1975, and to refer it to a joint committee of a committee Social solidarity, family, people with disabilities, the Office of the Manpower Committee and the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee.
• The Committee for Suggestions and Complaints in the House of Representatives approved during its meeting today, Sunday, a proposal for a bill on amending the text of Article 107 bis of the Penal Code, submitted by Representative Saeed Al-Aboudi, on the crime of bribery, and referring it to the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee for study and discussion. The proposal amends the text of Article 107 bis so that the exemption is limited only to cases where the briber or the mediator informs the authorities before they seize the crime and in a way that enables them to control the bribe.
• The Defense and National Security Committee of the House of Representatives, during its meeting held today, Sunday, chaired by Major General Yahya Kadwani, the deputy of the committee, in principle approved the draft budget of the Ministry of Interior, and recommended increasing some financial allocations to raise the efficiency of training and social care.
• Parliament approved a bill authorizing the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources to contract with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and Apache Khaleda Corporation LDC to amend the commitment agreement to search for and exploit oil, without the presence of the Minister of Petroleum.
• The committee prepares a law to confiscate encroachments on state land, including its buildings, in order for it to be a deterrent punishment for anyone who thinks about encroaching on state land
• The Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives, headed by Representative Mohamed Anwar Sadat, recommended that an amount of 12 million pounds be included in the payments for the construction of the new headquarters of the National Council for Human Rights, while at the same time it is demanding that the governors provide sub-headquarters for the National Council in their governorates according to any notification they receive from the National Council in this regard. The committee demanded - during its meeting to discuss the budget of the National Council for Human Rights for the fiscal year 2016/2017, and in the same context the House of Representatives announced that it continued to discuss with it some international agreements signed by the President of the Republic to ratify them, including:
• The House of Representatives agreed to refer the Cairo Metro loan agreement for the purchase of 13 locomotives for the second metro line between Egypt and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the cooperation protocol between the Ministry of Manpower and the International Labor Organization regarding the project to improve the management of labor migration and protect the rights of migrant workers in Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Egypt to a committee Joint of transport and economic. He also referred the memorandum of agreement regarding the King Salman bin Abdulaziz program for the development of the Sinai Peninsula signed in Riyadh on March 20, 2015 and issued by the decision of the President of the Republic to a joint committee of economic and Arab affairs, and he also referred the loan agreement between Egypt and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development regarding participation In financing sanitation to a joint committee of the plan and housing.
• In its morning meeting, the committee approved the loan agreement between the government of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development to contribute to financing the sanitation project in the areas adjacent to Al-Rahawi Bank, signed in Kuwait on 12/20/2015, indicating that it will be presented for a vote during the plenary session.
• The Energy and Environment Committee of the House of Representatives, Representative Talaat Al-Suwaidi, approved Presidential Decision No. 38 of 2016 approving the loan agreement signed in Cairo on November 22, 2015 between the government of Egypt and the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development regarding the contribution to financing the “Electricity Interconnection Project between Egypt and Saudi Arabia”
• Representative Akmal Kartam, a member of the House of Representatives and a representative of the Parliamentary Committee of the Conservative Party, made several observations and suggestions regarding the draft law for the “Equality and Prevention of Discrimination Commission”, submitted by the appointed representative Anisa Hassouna, during the discussion of the draft law in the Human Rights Committee.

Second: The oversight role of Parliament

The last period witnessed some representatives submitting briefing requests, urgent statements, and interrogations to the government, the most important of which was what was brought against the Minister of Education as a result of leaking secondary school exams or those presented by some deputies against what is being raised in the Ramadan series, some television programs, and advertisements containing some words that Some MPs considered it pornographic and demanded that it be stopped. Among them were: -

• The Education Committee of the House of Representatives submitted an urgent statement to the Speaker of Parliament, and summoned the Minister of Education about the leakage of the religious education subject in the public high school
• MP Hosni Hafez also blamed those who put the exams, asking, in an urgent statement to him before the plenary session of the Council, what was their fault for the students who mentioned seeing the exam leakage, ”and demanding that the Minister of Education be held accountable.
• In an urgent statement, MP Khaled Hilali called for the formation of a fact-finding committee after what he called the “scandal” of leaking the religious education exam for the secondary school stage.
• Attorney Alaa Wali also submitted an urgent statement addressed to the Minister of Education regarding the leakage of the 2016 General Secondary Religious Education Subject Exam, which led to the cancellation of the exam at the republic level, pointing out that this would lead to loss of time and dispersion of students' ideas.
• MP Hani Morgan presented an urgent statement against the makers of the series "She and Da Vinci", accusing them of having attacked the residents of Al Duwayqa, after the heroine described them as "Al-Sayyah" in one of the episodes.
• Mustafa Bakry, a member of Parliament and a member of the Culture and Information Committee, submitted a briefing request to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Investment, regarding the landfill programs on satellite channels, after he considered that they are “harmful to the reputation of society, and some artistic symbols and public figures such as the Ramez Play with Fire program and the Mini ISIS program.”
• Mervat Michel, a member of the Culture, Media and Antiquities Committee in the House of Representatives, also submitted a briefing request against the advertising and dramatic content presented in Ramadan due to the contempt of some of the materials presented on the one hand and the provocation of some series. She called for the inclusion of what she called the dramatic and advertising content Esfaf in the committee's agenda in the coming period.

Many MPs also submitted multiple requests, including:

• Representative Mona Mounir, a member of the House of Representatives, made an urgent statement to the Ministers of Interior and Tourism regarding the use of limousine companies for customs exemptions.
• MP Muhammad Salim, from Qalyubia Governorate, submitted a request to inform Dr. Ahmed Emad, Minister of Health and Population, regarding the Coast Teaching Hospital and its poor reception department, in addition to the poor condition of Benha Teaching Hospital in general.
• Abd al-Hamid Demerdash, the deputy of the Parliament's Agriculture Committee, submitted a proposal to Hisham Al-Shainy, Chairman of the Committee, and all members of the committee in order to summon everyone related to the rice crisis, starting with the Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Supply, and a number of farmers, exporters and some representatives from the grain room to present the problem to all parties from In order to reach the best solution, so that one party does not blame the other.
• Representative Akmal Kartam, representative of the Parliamentary Committee of the Conservative Party, submitted an urgent statement to the House of Representatives, regarding the repeated fires that occurred in some governorates of Egypt in the second half of last May
• Representative Muhammad Badawi Desouki, for the Giza district, also submitted an urgent statement against the Minister of Interior, against the background of the outbreak of fires in separate places in the country, as well as the kidnapping of a Saudi businessman.
• Representative Mahmoud Attia, a member of the House of Representatives from the Shubra El-Khaima district, submitted a request to be informed of the Ministers of Industry, Foreign Trade and Supply, to find out the real reasons that led to the unprecedented rise in cigarette prices in the Egyptian market.
• Alaa Wali, a member of the House of Representatives, submitted a briefing request to Eng. Sherif Ismail, Prime Minister and Minister of Housing regarding wasting public money, as he stated that the Urban Communities Authority did not commit to paying the loan installments owed to it to the National Investment Bank, which led to an increase in the interest due On the loan, about 10.5 billion pounds, which is equivalent to twice the value of the original loan of 5.1 billion pounds
• Riad Abdel Sattar, a member of Parliament in Minya Governorate, submitted an urgent statement to the Minister of Health regarding the low level of service in a number of central hospitals and the closure of some health units in a number of villages.
• Representative Muhammad Anwar Sadat, Chairman of the Human Rights Committee, submitted to Dr. Ali Abdel-Al, a request to discuss the live broadcast of the Parliament's sessions in the plenary session.
• Deputy Mohamed Anwar Sadat, Chairman of the Human Rights Committee, asked each of Dr. Sahar Nasr, Minister of International Cooperation, and Dr. Ghada Wali, Minister of Social Solidarity, about grant agreements received by the government from 2011 to 2016, to know the countries and bodies that provided these grants to Egypt How much are they worth, what are the projects and activities that were funded through these grants, and what are the spending aspects of each project and its detailed budget, in the framework of carrying out the oversight role of the House of Representatives regarding public money. Sadat also addressed a question to the two ministers about the number of advisors that are being hired in their ministry.
• MP Mustafa Bakry submitted a request to the Prime Minister about the government's silence on transgressing the law and on the invalidity of the various union councils that had relied on laws that had fallen into abolishing the Socialist Union. Bakri asked: “Is it permissible to adopt union councils whose laws stipulated that the captains and members of their councils obtain membership in the Arab Socialist Union despite its cancellation?” Noting that these laws had to be changed.
• Dr. Mohamed Salim, a member of Parliament in Qalyubia Governorate, made an urgent statement to the Minister of Supply regarding the shortage of food commodities and the high prices of a large number of important commodities ahead of the blessed month of Ramadan. He explained that the deficit rate in many commodities has exceeded the 701 TP1T ratio during the last period, despite the fact that citizens are in dire need of these commodities, especially with the approaching month of Ramadan.
• MP Muhammad Anwar Sadat, President of the Reform and Development Party and Chairman of the Human Rights Committee in the House of Representatives, submitted a series of inquiries about the budget for the new fiscal year 2016/2017, before the Finance Minister presented the financial statement this week.
• Riad Abdel Sattar, a member of Parliament, made an urgent statement to Eng. Sherif Ismail, Prime Minister and Minister of Irrigation regarding the drying up of some canals in Minya Governorate and the drop in water levels in others for more than two months, which resulted in the delay in planting some strategic summer crops.
• Abdel Moneim Al-Alimi, a member of the House of Representatives, submitted a question to Eng. Sherif Ismail, Prime Minister, regarding the headquarters of the dissolved National Party, demanding the necessity of legalizing their conditions and laying down foundations and standards for how to exploit them.
• The appointed deputy, Khaled Hanafi, submitted a briefing request to the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Ashraf Al-Shehi, regarding his receiving complaints from some students with visual impairment (the blind) about the failure to implement the new examination method through computers.
• Nadia Henry, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of the Free Egyptians Party, made an interrogation to the Minister of the Interior about the attack on a Christian woman in Minya in the village of Al-Karm
• Representative Muhammad Al-Masoud, a member of Parliament for the Free Egyptians Party, submitted an urgent statement to Ali Abdel-Al, Speaker of Parliament, to present it to the Minister of Interior, Major General Majdi Abdel Ghaffar, to quickly arrest the perpetrators of the incident of stripping an elderly woman of her clothes in the village of Al-Karm in Minya Governorate.
• Deputy Alaa Wali presented an urgent statement to the Minister of Health regarding the wrong implementation of the Prime Minister’s decision on increasing the prices of medicines 20 %, which led to some pharmaceutical companies ’manipulation of the decision and presented prices contrary to what was approved by the Council of Ministers. Indeed, some companies approved the increase in the unit meaning that the package that It contains two treatment strips, the extra is on each strip.
• MP Akmal Kartam, a representative of the Conservative Parliament, submitted two questions to the Prime Minister, regarding some of the government's monetary policies during the past few days, as he demanded clarification of the reasons for reprinting 500 million pounds of paper currency, despite the lack of a cash cover for it, and why the Central Bank resorted To this step, is the cost of printing it, buying currency paper, cutting it and transporting it equal to the value of printed paper?

Third: Parliament's relationship with the executive and the provision of services.

Members of the House of Representatives continue for the fifth month in a row, and despite the formation of the internal committees and their preoccupation with the legislative process and monitoring the performance of the government in providing services to their constituents by submitting direct requests to ministers, governors, district chiefs and bodies. During the period covered by the report, Maat monitored that many representatives obtained development approvals. Or the construction of roads, as well as the development of mosques, post offices, beaches for vacationers, and various matters of the jurisdiction of local councils mainly.

In the same context, many MPs held meetings with ministers, governors, heads of life, cities and centers with the aim of discussing matters related to the search for a solution to the crises that their departments are going through, including, for example: -

• MP Khaled Youssef announced that he had obtained the approval of Dr. Reda Farhat, the governor of Qalyubia, on the request submitted by the people of Tasfa village, “the birthplace of the deputy,” and the recommended one on supporting the “old reservoir road”, as an alternative linking Tasfa village and Kafr Shukr with ten columns lighting.
• The governor of Alexandria agreed to a request submitted by the representatives of the Nour Party, Ahmed Khalil Khairallah and Ahmed Al-Sharif, to introduce a lighting network consisting of 200 columns to the streets of the village of “Al-Galaa”.
• MP Mohamed Ahmed Zayed, a member of Parliament, obtained the approval of the Ministry of Endowments on 3 applications to develop the department's mosques
• Muhammad Ismail Jadallah, a member of the House of Representatives for the Nour Party, received approval from the Ministry of Housing to examine structural defects at Al-Khusha'a Water Station in Baltim.
• Muhammad Faisal Abidi, a member of Parliament for the Nour Party, obtained the approval of the Minister of Transport to extend the “Al-Qasabi-Sidi Salem railway”.
• Rizk Ragheb Dhaifallah, a member of Parliament, obtained the approval of the Ministry of Public Business Sector to allocate land for the establishment of a health unit that would serve the village of Abu Masoud and the surrounding villages.
• Representative Mohamed Ahmed Zayed, a member of the House of Representatives, obtained the approval of the National Post Authority to develop a post office for the village of “Behbeit Al-Hajarah” in the Gharbia Governorate.
• Representative Mohamed Ahmed Zayed, a member of Parliament, obtained the approval of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Communities to standardize the standards for the delivery of sewage service to the people of Samanoud, after they complained about the high price of the measurements and service delivery.
• MP Mustafa El-Gendy, a member of the House of Representatives, announced that the Ministry of Housing approved the request submitted by it to complete the sanitation project in the city of Senbellawein, in Dakahlia.
• Dr. Mahmoud Hussein, a member of Parliament for the Watan Future Party, said that Lieutenant General Mohab Mamish, head of the Suez Canal Authority, agreed that the authority should bear the cost of developing the beach of Port Fouad on the Mediterranean Sea, to improve the beach's capabilities for visitors to the city.
• Dr. Mahmoud Rashad, a member of the House of Representatives, obtained the approval of the Ministry of Endowments to replace and renovate a mosque and the hostess of “Al-Muhajireen”.
• Representative Magdy Malak, a member of the House of Representatives for the Free Egyptians Party, obtained the approval of Dr. Ashraf El-Araby, Minister of Planning and Administrative Reform, to pave the road to the end of the torrents in the village of Sharouneh, starting from the old eastern desert road to the Al-Omda Bank Bridge.
• Mohamed Eid Abdel-Gawad, a member of Parliament, said that the employment office for Hajj and Umrah trips will operate from mid-May in the city's medical center.
• A number of Alexandria deputies participated in a meeting with Engineer Mohamed Abdel-Zahir, Governor of Alexandria, in the presence of neighborhood heads, executives and deputy ministers in Alexandria.
• Representative Ashraf Rashad Othman, a member of Parliament and head of the Parliamentary Committee of the Watan Future Party, opened an exhibition for food commodities and household appliances in the “Mina Al-Basal and Laban” area, which will last for 12 days on the occasion of Ramadan

Fourth: Parliament's foreign relations

• Representative Mai Mahmoud, Secretary of the African Affairs Committee and a member of the Agriculture and Environment Committee of the African Parliament, said that parliamentary friendship associations have been established between the Egyptian Parliament and the African Parliament with the aim of strengthening relations between Egypt and all African countries. She explained that the offer was welcomed by the other parliament, and more than 30 parliamentary friendship societies were agreed in principle.
• Major General Hatem Bashat, Chairman of the African Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives, and head of the Egyptian parliamentary delegation participating in the African Parliament, met with the President of the African Parliament, to deliver an official invitation addressed to him by Dr. Ali Abdel-Al, Speaker of the Egyptian Parliament. The invitation from Dr. Ali Abdel-Al includes the approval of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to hold the next session of the African Parliament in October, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
• Ambassador Muhammad Al-Orabi, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives, held a meeting with Representative Sugato Boss, Member of the External Relations Committee in the Indian Parliament, in the presence of Representative Dalia Yusef, Representative Tariq Radwan, Deputy Foreign Relations Committee, and Representative Tariq Al-Khuli, Secretary of the Committee. The meeting was also attended by the Ambassador of India In Cairo, Sanjay Bhattacharya. A statement issued by the committee said that the two sides were concerned with the need to consolidate cooperation relations between the two countries, especially in the parliamentary field
• A number of members of the Foreign Affairs Committee met with a delegation from the Egyptian-French Friendship Association, and another delegation from the German Parliament, and the meetings focused on discussing and developing areas of cooperation, on the commercial, scientific, cultural, parliamentary and diplomatic levels.
• Dr. Ali Al-Moselhi, Chairman of the Economic Committee in the House of Representatives, met with William Weinstein, Minister Plenipotentiary for Economic Affairs of the United States Embassy in Cairo, in the presence of Muhammad Al-Husseini, Economic Specialist at the Embassy of Economic Affairs, and Konrad Torsky, Economic Officer of the Embassy. The scope of the committee’s work and the relationship of the committee with the relevant ministries in the economic field were discussed, in addition to issues related to the committee in terms of decisions regarding laws or laws expected to be presented to the committee.
• Dr. Ali Abdel-Al, Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Helmy Fawzy, received the Ambassador of Indonesia in Cairo, Thomas Guardia, Ambassador of Panama in Cairo, and Henadi Latte, Ambassador of Ukraine, who congratulated Dr. Ali Abdel-Al on his election as Speaker of the Council and the completion of the roadmap. The meeting dealt with supporting bilateral relations between Egypt and those countries.
• Major General Kamal Amer, Chairman of the Defense and National Security Committee in the House of Representatives, received a delegation from the American Embassy in Cairo headed by the embassy’s political liaison official.
• The Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee held a meeting with a member of the German Federal Parliament, the Bundestag, the official spokesman for the parliamentary bloc of the Social Democratic Party, a partner in the ruling coalition, Nils Annen, in the presence of Julius George Lowe, the German ambassador in Cairo, and a number of members of the Foreign Relations Committee. The two sides reviewed the committee's statement, the relations that bind the two countries, and listened to views on the issues on the scene at the present time.
• 3 members of the Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives traveled to France, to participate in a human rights event organized by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, which is scheduled to begin its work on Monday 23 May, or the workshop organized by the Council of Europe on human rights and the rule of law And democracy. This comes at a time when Dr. refused. Ali Abdel-Al, Speaker of the House of Representatives, a number of members of the House of Representatives traveled to attend the event, because the invitations were limited to being personal without formal invitations to the House of Representatives, following his knowledge that 4 members of the Human Rights Committee in the House of Representatives had received invitations to participate in the event.

Fifth: Final conclusions

Five months have passed since the convening of the first sessions of the House of Representatives, and so far no legislation has been issued that the parliament must issue in the first session, and the local administration law is headed by it, which led to a delay in issuance which led to the departure of many to present the service role assigned to the local people's councils as an alternative, just as the performance of the representatives Several observations were the most important of them: -

• The continuation of the tug of war between the MPs and the Speaker of Parliament continues in light of the Speaker’s attempt to impose his opinion on the deputies with his powers, which prompted a number of deputies to object to a method, especially when the deputies threatened to transfer them to the Values Committee if one of them violated the monetary policy of the state in the media.
• The continuation of the phenomenon of the deputies ’absence and leakage from the public sessions, which led to the postponement of some sessions for a period of more than two hours as a result of the lack of a quorum for the session, which led to the postponement of the vote on amending a law more than three times as a result of the lack of a quorum.
• Many MPs turn away from the service role to bridge the gap between the government and the citizen as a result of the absence of elected local popular councils.
• The Council continues to delay in issuing important laws, chiefly the Local Administration Law and the Law on Places of Worship, and confusion about the legality of discussing the civil service law in the same session in which it was rejected.
• The continued weakness of the parliament’s performance at the supervisory level and the follow-up of the performance of the executive authorities, as a result of the absence of parliamentary experience for some representatives, especially those who go through the experience for the first time.