People’s Assembly Speaker Saad al-Katatny on Sunday said that he will ask Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim to submit his plan for restructuring his ministry as soon as possible.
Katatny was responding to calls from independent MP Amr Hamzawy, who said that the minister said on 10 February that he would submit the plan within ten days.
More than 15 days passed without Ibrahim submitting his plan to restructure the ministry, which is widely criticized by Egyptians for failing to maintain security.
Earlier on Sunday, Ali Abdel Mawla, the legal affairs director of the Interior Ministry, told the Parliament’s Human Rights Committee that the ministry will request the amendment of Article 126 of the Penal Code, which gives police officers the right to physically abuse detainees in order to get information from them.
Police had been criticized for suppressing political activism under former President Mubarak. Following Mubarak’s ouster, many political forces have urged the restructuring of the police force and the purging of Mubarak’s loyalists.
Security forces have also faced heavy criticism for failing to prevent the massacre at Port Said football stadium, when over 70 people were killed in violence following a match.
On Saturday, Ibrahim met with top aides to discuss the plan for restructuring the ministry, which includes modernizing police equipment and amending legislation in order to protect human rights, the state-run news service MENA said.
