AFP/Cairo
A coalition that backed the military action to overthrow Egypt’s Islamist president has agreed to name a technocrat as the crisis-hit country’s interim premier, a presidential adviser said yesterday.
Ahmed al-Muslimani told private ONTV that business lawyer Ziad Bahaa Eldin, 48, was “very likely” to be named to the post of interim prime minister.
If confirmed, caretaker president Adly Mansour has gone for a technocrat without the baggage of his original choice for the job, liberal leader Mohamed ElBaradei who, Muslimani said, was now likely to become interim vice president.
The son of a prominent lawyer, Bahaa Eldin would be handed the enormous task of bringing a semblance of unity to the new Egypt four days after the military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi.
Bahaa Eldin has a long and distinguished career as a business lawyer.
He has worked for a string of law firms, including in Washington, before becoming an adviser to the Egyptian economics ministry in 1997.