CAIRO: Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has driven back the biggest challenge to civilian rule by dismissing top generals and tearing up their legal attempt to curb his power in a bold bid to end 60 years of military leadership.
Taking the country by surprise, Morsi pushed Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi into retirement. The 76-year-old figurehead of the old order had taken charge of the biggest Arab nation when Hosni Mubarak fell last year and remained head of its ad hoc military council after the Islamist was elected in June. Yet on Monday, the armed forces, which had supplied Egypt’s presidents for six decades after ousting the monarchy, showed no sign of challenging the move announced late on the previous day; lower-ranking generals and other officers may support a change which shifts power in the military to a new generation. One analyst spoke of a “civilian counter-coup” coordinated with an internal putsch by more junior figures inside the army. State media cited a military source dismissing talk of any “negative reactions” to a decision which hands Morsi, in the absence of parliament, sweeping control over the country. (Reuters)
