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Egyptian Parliament threatens MPs who criticise state

May 24, 2016 at 1:04 pm

The Egyptian Parliament Speaker on Sunday warned members of parliament against criticising the government’s monetary policy saying that destructive criticism “has adverse effects”.

“Some members consistently appear in television programmes to talk about the government’s monetary policy which leads to harmful consequences. Therefore all parliament members must refrain from speaking about the state’s monetary policy as it could expose it [the country] to harmful ramifications. Those who violate these instructions will be referred to the ethics committee,” the parliamentary website reported Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel Aal as saying.

Abdel Aal claimed there was a systematic campaign to destroy state institutions, noting that “only constructive criticism is acceptable”.

The Egyptian government is struggling to contain the country’s dollar crisis.

Earlier in March the Central Bank of Egypt devalued the Egyptian pound by 14.3 per cent, but the local currency continued to decline on the black market to range between 10.88 and 11 Egyptian pounds to the dollar.

The recent crash of an EgyptAir plane into the Mediterranean Sea is the latest episode in a series of shocks to Egypt’s tourism sector; the country’s main source for foreign currency.