Nour Party defends Sharia article in Constitution

The Salafi Nour Party objected to the removal of an article detailing the principles and sources of Sharia law is eliminated from the new draft constitution, the privately-owned Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Tuesday.
 

In the 2012 Constitution abrogated by the military on July 3 in the wake of the ouster of Brotherhood affiliate President Mohamed Morsi, Article 219 stipulated that the principles of Sharia, which is the main source of legislation, shall include general evidence, foundational and jurisprudental rules accepted in Sunni doctrines.
 

While Sharia as a main source of legislation remains part of the Article 2 of the amended constitution, Salafis see Article 219 as a necessary articulation.
 

Meanwhile, Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted Salah Abdel Maasoud, a politbureau member of the Nour Party as saying that nevertheless his party will continue participating in the committee of 50 figures tasked with further reviewing the amended constitutional draft submitted by a group of legal experts last month.
 

The newspaper also reported that Shaaban Abdel Aleem, vice secretary general of the Nour Party, had slammed the formation of the 50-member committee, for excluding the Islamist current and granting Islamist parties only one seat. He added that the party's withdrawal would hence make no difference since they have quite a weak representation in the committee. 

However, Mona Zulfaqar, a member of the committee and also a member of the National Human Rights Council, was quoted by the state-run Egynews portal as saying that the committee was balanced and that a presence of Islamists is preserved through figures in the committee representing Al-Azhar. 

The 50-member committee includes a number of figures with Azhar affiliations, while Bassam al-Zarqa of the Nour Party is the only representative of an Islamist party.