CAIRO – Egypt’s Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq said on Sunday he believed the former President Hosni Mubarak was in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. “What I know is that the (former) president is in Sharm el-Sheikh,” Shafiq told reporters. A cabinet spokesman said there had been no request to freeze Mubarak’s assets abroad, but “if there is a need, they will do it”.
The prime minister, charged with running domestic affairs by Egypt’s new military rulers, said the economy was solid and the country was being governed in the same way as under ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Trying to reassure Egyptians who rose up against Mubarak’s rule, Ahmed Shafiq said government affairs were being presented to the higher council of the armed forces and its president, “as they were presented to the president of the republic”.
“There is no change in form, or method, or the process of work. Matters are stable completely,” he told a news conference. Mubarak appointed Shafiq after sacking his former cabinet on Jan 29 in a vain effort to quell an uprising against his rule. Shafiq’s remarks were likely to infuriate Egyptians looking to dismantle Mubarak’s ruling system in the new era.
