Cairo, February 5
Embattled President Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal today quit the leadership of Egypt’s ruling party in a new gesture to convince anti-government protesters that the regime is serious about political reform.

State TV said the top leadership body of Egypt’s ruling party, including party secretary-general Safwat el-Sharif, resigned.

Protesters have shrugged off other concessions by the regime in the past 12 days of unprecedented street demonstrations, saying they will settle for nothing less than the immediate ouster of the embattled President who has ruled for nearly 30 years.

According to state TV, the ruling party’s six-member Steering Committee of the General Secretariat stepped down and was replaced. The council was the party’s highest decision-making body, and el-Sharif and other outgoing members were some of the most powerful.

El-Sharif has been replaced by Hossam Badrawi, a party figure who had been sidelined within its ranks. Gamal Mubarak, a member of the Steering Committee, has been seen as being groomed by his father to succeed him as President. — PTI