Egyptian Parliament Convenes, Defying Court And Military Generals

The Egyptian parliament convened for less than an hour, Tuesday, in an event billed as an act of defiance against the country's military led Supreme Council, which dissolved the parliament last month after a court hearing.

Egypt's newly elected President Mohamed Morsi, who took office on June 30, had ordered the legislative body to meet, overriding the military dictum.

The generals dissolved the parliament and issued an interim constitution on June 14, granting the military the power to control the budget and to determine who writes a permanent constitution.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi's former organization, which has the biggest bloc of seats in the parliament said it would participate on Tuesday in a million-man march in support of the president's decision and reinstating parliament.

The military council said it had only acted on behalf of the court ruling in June which said that the nation will be effectively ruled by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) junta and its backers in the bureaucracy and judiciary until further notice.

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court declared on Monday that its ruling to dissolve parliament is final and binding.

The military council said, We are confident that all state institutions will respect what was issued in all constitutional declarations, in a statement, as reported by the CNN.

The Brotherhood and the military, both of which got wider influence and powers after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, have been vying with each other in the run-up to the presidential election.

The Brotherhood's speaker of parliament Saad al-Katatni said that by holding the assembly, the lawmakers were not contradicting the ruling, but looking at a mechanism for the implementation of the ruling of the respected court. There is no other agenda today, he added before adjourning the session, a BBC report said.

al-Katatni met with the deputy head of the military council, Chief of Staff Gen. Sami Anan last month following the dissolution to register the group's protest and to convey that the group didn't accept the military government's decision and that the military was not entitled to issue an interim constitution.

As many as 25 cases have been filed by individuals protesting the President's decision to reinstate the parliament, said the court.

The fate of Morsi's decision, believed to have the support of the Brotherhood, depends on the court's ruling, which has the right to overrule presidential orders without any scope for appeal.