Egypt's information minister resigns amid heavy criticism

CAIRO – 25 April 2021: State Minister for Information Osama Heikal submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli indicating private reasons as the cause, Spokesperson of the Cabinet Nader Saad stated Sunday.

In January, Members of Egypt’s House of Representatives criticized Minister of State for Information Osama Heikal heavily in a session saying that he is holding two official posts at the same time namely as the Minister of Information and President of Media Production City, which is clear violation of the constitution and the law.

The MPs demanded Heikal to refund all of the money he took from the state during holding the two posts, noting the minster was engaging in a lot of disputes with most of the media workers during the past period.

“I wonder about the reason behind giving two posts at the same time to  one person, Is it because there are no cadres in the country to hold positions instead of violating the constitution and the law?”, Majority Leader in Parliament MP Ashraf Rashad said during the session.

MP Mahmoud Badr also said that Heikal gave noting to the parliament in his speech but ‘procrastination for all solutions’, when other ministers were discussing the achievements of their ministries before the newly-elected parliament.

MP Hend Rashan who works as a host at the state’s television revealed that ‘Maspero’ (state-run broadcasting building) is actually suffering from many problems waiting to be solved for a long time.

Several other MPs including Tamer Abdel Qader, Ayat Al-Haddad and Mustafa Bakry slammed the official actions and eventually demanded him to resign.