FJP’s Ashri: Shura Council Enjoys Immunity Under New National Charter

FJP’s Ashri: Shura Council Enjoys Immunity Under New National Charter

 

 In a statement to Ikhwanweb, Mukhtar Ashri, Chairman of the Legal Committee of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), sought to allay people’s worries about the Supreme Constitutional Court setting its May 12 session for consideration of the lawsuit on unconstitutionality of the law on which the Shura Council elections were based, and potentially dissolving the venerable upper chamber of Egypt’s parliament.

"Some consider the issue in light of calls to purge the judiciary and attempts by some judges to reject such calls; and people fear a repeat of the scenario of the People’s Assembly dissolved by the same court, after the first free legislative elections in Egypt, which cost the cash-strapped country over two billion Egyptian Pounds (US $300mil). But, legally, no such dismissal decision can be issued with regard to the Shura Council (upper house of Egypt’s parliament, entrusted with legislative authority under new Constitution).



"Shura Council is immune under Egypt’s new national charter, which grants it legislative authority ‘until the establishment of a new House of Representatives’; all that has nothing to do with the old parliament’s election law or the formation of Shura Council, even if it is indeed unconstitutional."