Egypt's longstanding Emergency Law will likely not be extended by the Islamist-led People’s Assembly (the lower house of Egypt's parliament) when it comes up for renewal on Thursday, effectively ending the country's 31-year-long state of emergency.
A majority of lawmakers support the notion of ending the reviled Emergency Law, which had been used to deadly effect against Egypt's political opposition by the ousted Mubarak regime.
Some parliamentarians, however, including independent MP Mostafa Bakry, believe the law should be extended by another year due to an ongoing domestic security vacuum, independent Egyptian daily Al-Shorouk reported on Wednesday.
Military sources, meanwhile, confirmed to Ahram Online that Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) would not request the law's extension.
Following Mubarak's ouster early last year, anti-regime protesters had demanded the law's cancellation. The SCAF had agreed to the demand at the time, citing Egypt's relatively stable domestic security situation.
In September, however, the SCAF amended certain articles of the law, and, following clashes outside Israel's Cairo embassy the following month, added new articles to it.
In January of this year, SCAF head Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi declared in a televised address that application of the emergency law would be limited to acts of thuggery and drug-related crimes.
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