Is crisis looming within Egypt's oldest political party?
Is the Wafd Party's decision to sack former party leader Al-Sayyid al-Badawi Shehata orchestrated by the regime of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi?
CAIRO — The Higher Committee of the Wafd Party, headed by legal adviser Bahaa Abu Shaqqa, decided Sept. 2 to formally suspend the membership of former party leader Al-Sayyid al-Badawi Shehata.
The liberal Wafd Party is one of the oldest Egyptian parties that was founded in 1918 and was the majority party before the revolution of July 23, 1952, which ended the reign of the monarchy and turned the country into a republican system.
Shehata announced on Dec. 3, 2018, that he would stop all his activities in the Wafd Party in a formal letter he sent to the party without stating any details.
Shehata was the head of the Wafd Party from 2010 to 2018. He is also the founder of Al-Hayat satellite TV channel, which he sold for $85 million in September 2017 to Tawasol, a subsidiary of Falcon, whose chairman of the board is Maj. Gen. Khaled Sharif, a former officer in the military intelligence.
