Did he jump or was he pushed? Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif (R) during his meeting with resigned Minister of Transport Mohamed Mansour in the Egyptian Cabinet office at the Smart Village outside Cairo yesterday.
PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak yesterday accepted the resignation of Egypt's Transport Minister Mohamed Mansour in the aftermath of a deadly railway crash that killed 18 people earlier this week.Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif confirmed Mansour's resignation saying: "I have just been informed that the President has accepted the resignation
Nazif said the resignation came in response to the train crash."According to the rules of Egypt's Cabinet,theMinisterof Electricitywillbein charge of the Transport Ministry until a new minister is named," Cabinet spokesman Magdi Radi told reporters yesterday.The official Middle East News Agency (MENA) quoted Mansour as saying that he "felt comfortable as he had resigned after some achievements in the transport sector in Egypt". Emerging from a 20-minute meeting with Nazif, Mansour told Egyptian TV that he had done his best to upgrade the nation's transport sector.It is rare for Egyptian officials to resign following criticism for negligence, despite a series of mishandled disasters around the country.The accident happened when a passenger train drove full-speed into the back of another train southwest of Cairo on Saturday evening. The first train had made an unscheduled halt, apparently after the driver saw a water buffalo on the track. Thirty-six people were injured in the mishap.Threerailway workershavebeencharged with involuntary manslaughter. MP Zakaria Azmi, who is the chief of the presidential staff, severely criticised Mansour and his ministry's performance on Monday, calling on him, the Government and Parliament to admit that they were the reason for the crash."Yes, the Government and Parliament are the real cause,"Azmi told a meeting, attended by Mansour, of the Transport Committee of the legislature.Ministers of Health, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Local Development also attended the meeting.Some other lawmakers had called on Mansour to submit his resignation, while others asked him to pay blood money to the victims' families Egypt's national railway system is the largest and earliest in the Middle East, with 5,000 kilometres (3,150 miles) of track, according to Egyptian National Railways, which employs 86,000 people.Egypt's deadliest train crash happened in February 2002 when the bodies of at least 361 passengers were recovered from a train following a major fire.
