Egypt's Court Overrules President's Order To Reconvene Parliament; Power Struggle Looms

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) swiftly overruled Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's order to reconvene the parliament, intensifying the confrontation between the newly elected president and the judiciary, which is believed to be acting in the interests of the backers of Mubarak regime and the ruling military-led Supreme Council.

The Egyptian parliament convened for less than an hour Tuesday, defying the country's military generals, who dissolved the parliament last month after a court order.

Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party candidate, who took office June 30, had ordered the legislative body to meet, overriding the military dictum.

The court ruled to halt the president's decision to recall the parliament, Maher el-Beheiry, the court's chief justice, ruled hours after the parliament was in session.

Signaling an escalating standoff between the judiciary and the legislature, the Brotherhood officials Tuesday questioned the court's right to overturn the head of state's decree.

I invited you to convene in accordance with the decree issued by the president, the Brotherhood's speaker of parliament Saad al-Katatni had earlier said while addressing the lawmakers.

However, liberal members of the legislature, opposed to the takeover of the government by the Islamists, boycotted Tuesday's parliament session, saying that the president didn't have the authority to go against the judicial order.

Senior Brotherhood official Mahmoud Ghozlan said the latest court ruling signified the power struggle between the military and the president.

It is part of a power struggle between the military council and the president who represents the people and in which the military council is using the law and the judiciary to impose its will, Ghozlan was quoted as saying by Reuters.

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

The military council said it had only acted on behalf of the court ruling in June which said that the nation would 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 Monday declared that its ruling to dissolve parliament was final and binding.

The military council, following the Monday's ruling, has said: We are confident that all state institutions will respect what was issued in all constitutional declarations, according to 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.

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.

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.