Egyptian Advisory Council Recommends New Constitutional Panel

A civilian council that advises Egypt’s military rulers recommended changing the composition of a committee to draft the country’s new constitution.

The head of the council, Sameh Ashour, told reporters today that they had proposed the committee include the heads of political parties represented in parliament, as well as the heads of religious institutions, judicial authorities and civil society representatives.

The proposal, which is being evaluated by the ruling generals, marks the latest attempt to convene a new committee after a court in April ruled against its earlier composition. This effectively halted efforts to draft the new charter ahead of the planned handover of power by the military to a civilian president by the end of June.

Secularists, revolutionary youth groups and others had protested the earlier group’s makeup, saying it was dominated by Islamists. The now-disbanded 100-member body had included 50 people drawn from parliament and an equal number of independents. Critics maintained that many of the independents were sympathetic to the Islamist lawmakers represented in the panel, according to Bloomberg.