Ending the state of emergency was initially hailed as a step in the right direction, but it might not actually change much, especially after the passage of legal amendments that may seemingly take its place.
A state of emergency gives executive authorities unfettered powers to arrest any suspects and put them under surveillance, impose different forms of censorship on mass media, among other measures.
It is meant to be invoked during exceptional circumstances, yet it was activated throughout late President Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade autocratic rule, which came to end following public uprising in February 2011 – part of the so-called Arab Spring.
In 2014, under incumbent President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the state of emergency was put back in place in the restive North Sinai, near the borders with Israel, amid recurrent militant attacks. It then became nationwide in 2017 on the back of
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