Defying Army, People’s Assembly to Meet Tuesday
Egypt’s parliamentary speaker said the chamber would reconvene on Tuesday, risking a showdown with the army after the new, Islamist president defied the generals by quashing the dissolution of the legislature they had ordered last month.
Quoted by state news agency MENA on Monday, Saad al-Katatny — who, like President Mohamed Morsy, hails from the long-suppressed Muslim Brotherhood — said the lower house would sit from noon on Tuesday, overturning a court judgment and military order issued a month ago, before Morsy’s election.
The move, heralded by a decree issued by Morsy on Sunday — barely a week after he took office — threatens Egypt with fresh political uncertainty likely to take a toll on a fragile economy and dash the hopes of many desperate for a period of calm after 17 turbulent months since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.
However, in a signal that relations have far from broken down between Morsy and the army, the president and the head of the military council appeared together, looking relaxed and in conversation, at a televised event on Monday morning.