Car importers reached for the nuclear option yesterday in their war against the proposed automotive directive — and in doing so, made for the most dramatic viewing last night. Lamees El Hadidy made hay out of an Al Watan newspaper report on an MP’s allegation that high-profile business leader Raouf Ghabbour had offered the House of Representatives microbuses worth EGP 650k. The piece not so subtly suggests that Ghabbour made the alleged offer of a donation to push forward the directive, which would give incentives to car assemblers who go further up the value chain into manufacturing and thereby protect them against unfair advantages enjoyed by European Union, Turkish and Moroccan imports. The measure has broad backing from automotive assemblers (read: the people who create industrial jobs) and is almost universally reviled by pure importers.

The allegation was made by MP Mohammed Zein, a member of the House Transport Committee, who said he has submitted a formal request for an inquiry into the matter. Lamees was oddly spineless over the entire affair (watch, runtime 7:16), saying only that the House should never accept gifts that would raise questions about conflicts of interest.

As we noted yesterday, importers threatened by the prospect of the automotive directive — which the Ismail government sees as a clear pro-jobs move that would help deepen Egypt’s industrial base — have arranged a drumbeat of coverage in the domestic press attacking the proposed measure, which remains in committee.

Al Hadidi then moved on to talk about what she characterized as a persistent shortage in meds in the market, saying the need for national health insurance is becoming more pressing and might just be the only way to improve citizens’ access to needed pharma products (watch, runtime 19:34).

Al Hayah Al Youm’s Lobna Asal discussed the proposed Investment Act with House Economics Committee Deputy Chair Amr El Gohary, who said he expects discussion to wrap up within a couple of days. Other than the issue of establishing private free zones (we have more on that in Speed Round), a point of contention with the government, MPs are also still undecided about the ceiling foreign labor at any one company. El Gohary said he would personally prefer it to be brought down to 10% from a current 20% (watch, runtime 8:00).

Asal then moved on to a follow-up on the ongoing domestic wheat harvest. Supply Ministry Spokesperson Mamdouh Ramadan said that the ministry sources a daily 70k tonnes from farmers and extended working hours to be able to keep up (watch, runtime 3:31).

Over on Kol Youm, Amr Adib spoke to Endowment Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa about the ministry’s newest book, which is yet to hit the shelves and is meant to shed light on the myths and mysteries of terrorism, which are used by terrorist groups recruit new followers (watch, runtime 12:14).

On Yahduth fi Masr, Sherif Amer hosted Interior Ministry Spokesperson Hany Abdel Latif for the night to chat about security. Abdel Latif said that authorities have found evidence that ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi was in touch with terrorist groups in Sinai during his time in office.