What right had Sabry to claim he was still Finance Minister?
On Monday morning, ex-Minister of Justice Ali Sabry was hastily sworn in as the nation’s new Finance Minister.
But, alas, the sudden elevation of Ali Sabry from the familiar field of law to the convoluted world of figures, perhaps, may have proved beyond his ken, for the following morn, he tendered his resignation, even volunteering to surrender his national list seat to pave the way ‘for a suitable person to handle the situation.’
But Sabry need not have offered to make the supreme sacrifice any politician, who has crept into Parliament not by the will of the people but through its rear, would feel compelled to make in the circumstances.
On Friday he tells Parliament: ‘Today I am addressing this House as the Finance Minister. I revoked my resignation as the Finance Minister as no one was willing to take over the ministry.’
Very gallant of him to take up the torch he had laid down three days earlier but after resigning on his own accord by sending a letter addressed to the President on Tuesday and released to the media, can Sabry assume to still be the Finance Minister without being freshly sworn in?
Article 47 of the Constitution states that a Minister shall continue to hold office unless he ‘resigns his office by a writing under his hand addressed to the President.’
Clearly this does not make any provision for any private understanding between the President and the Minister nor hinge on the President refusing to accept the written resignation. Once the Minister has given notice of his resignation written under his hand addressed to the President, the Minister stands resigned. Only a fresh swearing in can make him a Minister again. As of Friday evening, Sabry had not been re- sworn in as the nation’s Finance Minister.
Pray then, will the ex-Justice Minister, President Counsel Ali Sabry clearly explain what legal right he constitutionally had to claim on Friday afternoon in Parliament that he was the nation’s Minister of Finance?