Minister of Legal Affairs Mohamed Mahsoub (Photo: Ahram Arabic News Website)
Mohamed Mahsoub, Egypt’s Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, submitted his resignation to President Mohamed Morsi on Thursday, according to Essam Sultan, vice president of the moderate Islamist Wasat Party of which Mahsoub is a leading member.
Mahsoub explained in his resignation letter he realised that many of the policies adopted by the government “contradict” his personal beliefs and “do not reflect the aspirations of the people after the revolution or the sacrifices they made for it to succeed.”
Also, Mahsoub, who was a member of the constituent assembly that drafted Egypt’s newly approved constitution, slammed the government for not dealing with the file of returning the country’s stolen money seriously, although he had submitted a full report three months ago.
He is the second minister to resign publicly in the last few days. The Minister of Communications and Information Technology Hani Mahmoud also announced his resignation on Twitter on Tuesday.
The resignation of the only Wasat representative in Hisham Qandil’s cabinet came as a sign of the party’s protest against the president’s decision to keep Qandil as prime minister, Sultan told Al-Ahram Arabic news website.
Informed sources told Ahram Online that the new cabinet reshuffle announced by President Morsi in his speech on Wednesday night will include 10 portfolios, together with the Ministry of Justice headed by reformist Judge Ahmed Mekki who is believed to have submitted his resignation a few weeks ago.
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