Al-Ahram Weekly Issue No. 243 19 - 25 October 1995
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

The Pasha

Fouad Serageddin, 85, is the Wafd's chairman and undisputed boss. With a cigar perennially dangling from his mouth, he insists on being addressed as "Fouad Pasha" to demonstrate his rejection of the 1952 Revolution which abolished the aristocratic titles of bey and pasha. Within Wafd party ranks, he is often referred to as The Pasha.

Born to a wealthy family of landowners in the province of Daqahliya, Serageddin obtained a law degree from King Fouad University, now Cairo University, in 1931 and began a brief career as a district prosecutor the following year before devoting himself to running his family business. He joined the Wafd Party in 1936 and was elected uncontested to the House of Representatives in the same year, retaining his seat until 1942.

In that year, he made it to the cabinet for the first time, serving as minister of agriculture and later holding the portfolios of the interior, social affairs and communications. He became a member of the Senate in 1946 and secretary-general of the Wafd Party in 1948 at the age of 38.

He was minister of the interior, doubling as finance minister, in the period between 1950 and 1952, when the nation was in turmoil. He still takes credit for ordering a police garrison in Ismailia, armed only with rifles, to engage in a suicidal battle with British occupation forces using field guns. He and the Wafdist cabinet of which he was a member were dismissed following the widespread arson in Cairo on 26 January 1952.

When the "Free Officers" took over in the July '52 Revolution, Serageddin was put on trial and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, but he was released after two months. He was detained again in 1953, 1956, 1961, 1965 and 1967 for opposing the regime of President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. He was also detained by President Anwar El-Sadat, along with other political figures, in 1981.

When he led the Wafd Party's comeback in 1978, Sadat compared him to Louis XVI coming back from the grave. Despite his corpulent body and advanced age, Serageddin is described by associates as fairly energetic.

 

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