Egypt erupts as prez turns ‘pharaoh’

Egypt erupts as prez turns ‘pharaoh’

Morsi Assumes Sweeping Powers That Even Mubarak Didn’t Enjoy, Triggers Violence

Cairo: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi assured his supporters that the country was on a path of “freedom and democracy” even as thousands of people staged rival rallies across the polarized nation to both support and oppose his move to assume sweeping powers.
    Morsi’s detractors dubbed him the ‘new pharaoh’, a day after he issued a declaration granting himself what many said were more powers than even the ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.
    Thousands of his supporters and opponents on Friday took to streets to stage rival rallies across Egypt, leading to sporadic violence and burning down of offices belonging to the ruling Muslim Brotherhood.
    Amid much concern over the move, Morsi told his supporters that Egypt was on the path to “freedom and democracy,” and stability was the need of the hour.
    “Political stability, social stability and economic stability are what I want and that is what I am working for,” he told an Islamist rally outside the presidential palace.
    Morsi’s new powers are supposed to be temporary, to last for the transition period, and the decree will expire when a new constitution is approved by the middle of February. However his opponents see the move as endangering the gains of the popular uprising which ousted Mubarak’s dictatorial regime.
    “I have always been, and still am, and will always be, God willing, with the pulse of the people, what the people want, with clear legitimacy,” Morsi said. 
    The president’s declaration also ordered retrials of officials involved in the killing of protesters during the 2011 mass uprising against the Mubarak regime.
    Protesters marching from various city points converged in Cairo’s iconic Tahrir Square chanting slogans such as “Down with the Supreme Guide”, “Wake up Mursi, it’s your last day,” and the popular “The people demand the fall of the regime”.
    The protesters held banners denouncing the Muslim Brotherhood and its intervention in the state policy, as well as banners rejecting Thursday’s constitutional declaration. During the protests, offices of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, were set ablaze in Ismailiya and Port Said, state television said.
    It was also reported that the party’s office in Alexandria was also stormed. Eyewitnesses said 15 were injured in the clashes as both sideshurled stones at each other, and at least five cars were smashed. The protesters arrived in Tahrir about an hour after Islamist supporters of Morsi came out in the tens to demonstrate against the Constitution Party’s anti-Mursi protest march. The two groups engaged in verbal sparring matches, shouting slogans at each other.
    Political forces including the Wafd Party, Tagammu Party, Constitution Party, Democratic Egyptian Party, Free Egyptians Party and Popular Trend Party, and the April 6 Youth Movement, the Revolutionary Youth Union, the Free Egyptian Movement, the No to Military Trials group and the Bring them for Trial campaign announced participation in the protest.
    Islamist forces including the Muslim Brotherhood, Jama’a al-Islamiya, and Salafi Dawah as well the Freedom and Justice Party, the Noor Party, Asala and Wasat were in support of the new constitutional declaration. PTI 
BIRTH OF ANOTHER AUTOCRAT? 
    President Morsi exempts all his decisions from legal challenge until a new parliament is elected
    Gives himself sweeping powers that allow him to sack the unpopular general prosecutor and open the door for a retrial of Mubarak and his aides
    Empowers himself to enact any measure he deems necessary to deal with a ‘threat’ to Egypt’s ‘revolution’
    The powers are supposed to be temporary — until a new constitution is adopted and new parliamentary polls take place
Morsi’s aides say the steps will help in speeding up a protracted transition process that has been hindered by legal obstacles
    But his critics say the decree puts Morsi in the same category as Mubarak, who argued his autocratic powers were necessary to shepherd Egypt to a new democratic future