The Egyptian government's nomination of Dr. Khaled El-Anany, former Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, to the position of Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as well as what was raised behind the scenes about the nomination of former Minister of Planning Ashraf El-Araby for the position of Prime Minister, and the existence of negotiations with former Minister of Trade and Industry Rashid Mohamed Rashid for the same purpose raises many questions about the fate of former Egyptian ministers.
Former ministers, especially those of the economic group, have traditionally been hired in banking positions, as happened under President Abdel Nasser by appointing Ahmed Zando, Minister of Treasury (Finance), as governor of the Central Bank, and repeating this during the Mubarak era with Finance Minister Salah Hamed by appointing him as governor of the Central Bank.
3 foreign ministers were promoted to the position of Secretary-General of the Arab League, namely Amr Moussa, Nabil El-Araby, and Ahmed Aboul Gheit
During the Mubarak era, Minister of Finance Mohamed El-Razar was appointed President of the Arab Investment Bank, and Tawfiq Abdo Ismail, Minister of Tourism, as President of the United Bank of Egypt before its merger, even Minister of Defense and Prime Minister Hassan Kamal Ali was appointed President of the Egyptian Gulf Bank, and this continued in the current era with the appointment of Minister of Public Business Sector Ashraf El-Sharkawy as President of Misr Iran Bank, in which he was succeeded by former Minister of Finance Amr El Garhy and Bahaa Ziad El-Din, former Minister of International Cooperation at the Ministry of Beblawi as President of Alex Bank.
Heads of companies to facilitate dealing with banks
Others have also been appointed as members of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank, as is currently the case with the appointment of Ashraf El-Araby, former Minister of Planning, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank, Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Central Bank and a member of a number of its committees, and the appointment of former Minister of International Cooperation Najla Al-Ahwani as a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank currently.
Three foreign ministers were promoted to the post of Secretary-General of the Arab League, namely Amr Moussa, Nabil Elaraby and Ahmed Aboul Gheit. Ahmed Juwaili, former Minister of Trade and Supply, was appointed Chairman of the Council of Arab Economic Unity, Minister of Education Ahmed Fathi Sorour became Speaker of the People's Assembly in 3, and Safwat Al-Sharif, Minister of Information, Chairman of the Shura Council.
It is worth saying that not everyone is so, there are others who were destined after the ministry to return to teaching at the university, as happened with former Minister of Finance Medhat Hassanein, former Minister of Youth Ali Eddin Hilal, Samiha Fawzi, Minister of Trade and Industry, Ibrahim Ghoneim, former Minister of Education and many others, and most health ministers returned to their private clinics.
During the past decades, it has been customary for former ministers to appoint heads of companies, whether by the government or by the private sector, to take advantage of their government connections to facilitate the company's business as well as the possibility of obtaining bank loans on easier terms, which is what happened with the former Minister of Public Business Sector Mokhtar Khattab and Ibrahim Fawzy, Minister of Industry under Mubarak, by taking over several companies for Egyptians abroad.
Ahmed Juwaili, former Minister of Trade and Supply, headed by the Kingdom Agricultural Investment Company in Toshka, Ahmed Darwish, former Minister of Administrative Development, headed by the Suez Canal Axis Development Authority for a period, Osama Saleh, former Minister of Investment for several companies, including Damietta Furniture City, former Minister of Investment Dalia Khorshid, head of one of the media companies affiliated with a sovereign entity, and Ashraf Salman, former Minister of Investment, as head of several companies, the latest of which was United Media Services affiliated with sovereign entities.
Honorary positions for the less fortunate
It was represented by Minister Khaled Badawi, former Minister of Public Business Sector, who headed a sugar company and was a member of the board of directors of the Emirati Emaar Misr Company, and Osama Heikal, former Minister of Information, headed the Media Production Company, as happened with the former Minister of Information, Major General Ahmed Anis, who assumed the presidency of the company after his exit, and then moved from it to head the Egyptian Satellite Company Nilesat.
Former Minister of Local Development Ahmed Zaki Abdeen headed the Administrative Capital Company, and former Minister of Communications Maged Osman headed Telecom Egypt, in which the government owns 80% of the shares.
Other ministers also returned to their private companies after leaving the ministry, such as Rashid Mohamed Rashid, former Minister of Trade and Industry after his return to the country, during whose reign Egyptian exports achieved a boom after concluding a number of free trade agreements, Ahmed Al-Maghrabi, former Minister of Tourism and Housing, Zuhair Garana, former Minister of Tourism after his release from prison, and Sameh Fahmy, former Minister of Petroleum, headed one of the bodies working in the field of training for workers in the oil sector.
Other ministers have held honorary positions, such as Hassaballah al-Kafrawy, Minister of Housing and Construction, as President of the Engineers Syndicate, Ali Jamal Al-Nazer, former Minister of Tourism, as President of the Businessmen Association, Hani Dahi, former Minister of Transport, as President of the Syndicate of Engineers, the presidency of the National Council for Human Rights for former Minister of Family and Population, Moushira Khattab, and the presidency of the Small Industries Authority for Nevine Gamea, Minister of Trade and Industry.
The position of Executive Director of the Egyptian Zakat and Charity House Foundation went to Sahar Nasr, the former Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, who had a prominent role in obtaining loans from the World Bank, in which she worked before assuming the ministry, and granting membership of the National Council for Women to former Minister of Insurance Nagwa Khalil, as well as to former Minister of Scientific Research Nadia Zakhary.
Imprisonment after the ministry is the fate of many
The resignation of some ministers was accepted for assuming foreign positions, as was done with the Minister of Investment in the late Mubarak era, Mahmoud Mohieldin, in September 2010 to work at the World Bank, and with Ghada Wali, Minister of Social Solidarity, in November 2019 to assume the position of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and Khaled Hanafi, former Minister of Supply, assumed the position of Secretary-General of the Arab Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture.
Major General Mohamed Ibrahim, former Minister of Interior, was appointed as an adviser to the Prime Minister with the rank of Deputy Prime Minister, Maj. Gen. Magdy Abdel Ghaffar, former Minister of Interior, was appointed as an adviser to the President for Security and Counter-Terrorism Affairs, and General Sedki Sobhi, former Minister of Defense, was appointed Assistant to the President for Defense Affairs.
Imprisonment was the fate of former ministers, as happened with a number of ministers under President Mubarak, including Zuhair Garana, Minister of Tourism, Mohamed Ibrahim Suleiman, Minister of Housing, Safwat Al-Sharif, Minister of Information, Habib Al-Adly, Minister of Interior, Sameh Fahmy, Minister of Petroleum, and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, and the prosecution of others who were outside the country for years, such as Rashid Mohamed Rashid and Youssef Boutros-Ghali.
Finance Minister Mohi al-Gharib was previously sentenced to 10 years in prison in a customs-related case, of which he was later acquitted, and in the current era, former Minister of Agriculture Salah Hilal was sentenced to 10 years in a bribery case.
Members of Hisham Qandil's cabinet witnessed the imprisonment of a number of ministers who are still in prison until now, namely Bassem Odeh, former Minister of Supply, Hatem Abdel Latif, Minister of Transport, Khaled Al-Azhari, Minister of Manpower, Osama Yassin, Minister of State for Youth, and Muhammad Ali Bishr, Minister of Local Development.
Justice Minister Ahmed Soliman was imprisoned for a while, while others fled the country: Amr Darrag, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Salah Abdel Maksoud, Minister of Information, Yahya Hamed, Minister of Investment, and Mohamed Mahsoob, Minister of Parliaments.
Return to the same position after several years
Many former ministers remain at home and stay away from dealing with the media for safety, such as the dismissed former Minister of Justice Ahmed Al-Zend, and on the contrary, former Minister of Petroleum Osama Kamal devoted himself to appearing in the media, while the articles of Ahmed Galal, the former Minister of Finance, were banned.
After what prevailed during the Mubarak era was the participation of former ministers, especially specialists in economic aspects, in seminars held by research bodies and parliamentary committees to contribute to providing solutions to economic problems, as was done by Sultan Abu Ali, former Minister of Economy, Ministers of Planning Othman Mohamed Osman and Ahmed Al-Darsh, Minister of Supply Gouda Abdel Khaleq, and Prime Ministers Ali Lotfi and Abdel Aziz Hegazy.
If there is talk of consulting with former ministers to hold positions or benefit from their experience, such as Youssef Boutros-Ghali, former Minister of Finance, and Mahmoud Mohieddine, former Minister of Investment, many ministers have already returned to ministerial positions years after leaving the ministry, as happened with Ibrahim Al-Damiri, Minister of Transport, who was dismissed after the Upper Egypt train fire in February 2002 and then returned to the ministry at the Beblawi Ministry in July 2013.
Jalal Saeed, Minister of Transport in Ganzouri's second ministry until August 2012, who returned to his position in Sherif Ismail's ministry in March 2016, and Osama Saleh, Minister of Investment, who lost his position in May 2013, and returned to the same position in July of the same year with Ashraf al-Arabi, Minister of Planning, where they left together from the ministry of Hisham Qandil and returned together in the ministry of Beblawi.
Indeed, Hazem al-Beblawi, who lost his post as finance minister in December 2011, returned as prime minister in July 2013 after the military took power, Ahmed Zaki Badr, who left as education minister in January 2011, returned as minister of local development in September 2015, and Ali al-Moselhy, who lost his post as minister of social solidarity and in charge of supply in February 2011, returned as minister of supply in February 2017 in Sherif Ismail's ministry.
Osama Heikal, who left the post of information minister in December 2011, returned to his post in December 2019, and Kamal al-Ganzouri, whose term as prime minister ended in October 1991, returned as prime minister in December 2001, 10 years after his first ministry.