Justice Tariq Al-Bishri: Charter Writing Constituent Assembly Balanced

Constitutional scholar, Counselor Tariq Al-Bishri, Chairman of the Egyptian People’s Assembly Constitutional Amendments Committee, said that the formation of the Constituent Assembly tasked with writing the country’s new Constitution is a balanced panel comprising all the broad spectrum of Egypt’s society.

In a statement, Justice Al-Bishri asserted that article 60 of the Constitutional Declaration approved by the people through the March 2011 public referendum empowers and mandates members of the People’s Assembly and Shura Council to select the Constitution writing assembly, without specifying from within parliament or outside. He added that it would have been legally acceptable for them to choose, for the constituent panel, only MPs from both chambers of parliament, but they preferred to include the full political and social spectra of the Egyptian people.

Counselor Al-Bishri emphasized that the full spectra of political parties and movements, and all hues of Egyptian society segments, components and denominations are represented in the constituent panel, which evidently includes representatives from various institutions and organizations, as well as different ideologies and religions, leanings and persuasions.

Al-Bishri called for patience, “We should now wait until all proposals are heard, and then judge them according to how much they respond to the aspirations of the noble people of post-Revolution Egypt”.