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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 May - 2 June 1999 Issue No. 431 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 May - 2 June 1999 Issue No. 431
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Living Features Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Centrists driven to despair
By Amira HoweidyAlmost two years after a group of political activists defected from the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to establish a political party, Al-Wasat (Centre), there have been indications that the party may never see the light of day. The lawyer of the would-be founders, Mohamed Selim El-Awwa, on Saturday presented a memorandum to the Political Parties Tribunal, threatening to step down.
The memo blamed the tribunal, as well as the Political Parties Committee, for failing to provide El-Awwa with papers he described as crucial to Al-Wasat's case.
"I performed my duty as a lawyer until it became impossible for me to do my job properly. That's why I am threatening to leave," El-Awwa told Al-Ahram Weekly.
The group made their first attempt at establishing Al-Wasat in 1997 by submitting an application to the Political Parties Committee. The application was rejected on the grounds that Al-Wasat's platform was not unique -- a prerequisite stipulated by the Political Parties Law.
Then the group contested the decision with the Political Parties Tribunal, which supported the committee's rejection on 9 May 1998.
Forty-eight hours later, the group's leader, Abul-Ela Madi, submitted a second application to establish another party named Egyptian Al-Wasat. This, too, was rejected in September. The activists contested the rejection with the Political Parties Tribunal, which will announce its decision on 5 June.
According to El-Awwa, the tribunal has not responded to his request for the "crucial" papers. Earlier this month, he said he had asked the tribunal to allow him to have access to the platforms of the political parties, to which Al-Wasat's programme was compared, in order to refute claims that the latter was not unique. He also requested an official copy of the minutes of a meeting of the Political Parties Committee on 17 September 1998 which discussed whether Al-Wasat's programme was similar to, or different from, the programmes of other existing parties.
But instead of providing an official copy, the committee presented "a document that made no reference whatsoever to the 17 September meeting," said El-Awwa. It carried no signature or date and made no mention of the names of those who attended the meeting. There was no indication whatsoever that that was the paper the activist group requested. "It could well be part of the minutes of another meeting altogether," El-Awwa said.
But are these documents really essential for the case? "Of course, they are crucial," El-Awwa said. "We need to have access to the platforms to which Al-Wasat's programme was compared in order to understand where we stand."
The meeting of 17 September 1998, he added, was a lengthy discussion between Madi and the committee's members. "How am I supposed to defend a case when I don't have the papers I need?" he asked. "This is absurd."
El-Awwa, however, continues to have hope that the memo he presented to the tribunal on Saturday may bear fruit. "I believe in the justice of the judiciary. It is very possible that the tribunal will allow us to have access to the papers we need," he said. If this happens, the tribunal will be forced to postpone the announcement of its decision, El-Awwa argued.
