Nour Party withdraws from Committee of 50

Dr. Bassam Al-Zarka, the Nour Party’s representative in the 50-member board charged with amending Egypt’s constitution, walked out of a meeting on Monday for a sub-committee on the basic components of the state, according to media sources.

Al-Zarka reportedly walked out of the session after other members of the committee rejected his suggestion to add a remark to Article 2 and to replace the phrase “principles of Islamic sharia” in the same article with “Islamic sharia” (Islamic jurisprudence), or leave “principles of Islamic sharia” as it is but add an interpretation to it in Article 219, which was the case in the original 2012 Constitution that is now being amended.

The sources added that Al-Zarka’s withdrawal came also as an expression of his objection to many members’ wish to remove Article 219 altogether. A member of the committee, the movie director Khaled Youssef, tried to ease of the situation, but Bassam insisted on withdrawing from the meeting.