Some in the House of Representatives want to lower the minimum age for marriage to 16 from 18 years old. That was the highlight of a random night on the airwaves.

Masaa DMC host Osama Kamal spoke to the brains behind the proposal, Rep. Ahmed Samih, who said the change would help formalize scores of undocumented marriages in rural Egypt. He explained that the laws prohibiting the registration of marriage contracts for those under 18 do not prevent families from marrying off their underage children in places where the practice is culturally acceptable (watch, runtime 7:04).

Deputy Health Minister Maissa Shawky felt differently though. She told Kamal that: a) It’s unlikely the legislation will pass the House, and b) reducing the age for marriage could create a baby boom in Egypt and escalate our already-alarming population growth levels, since fertility is higher at younger ages (watch, runtime 10:40).

Kamal then moved on to building code violations. House Housing Committee Chair Alaa Wali told Kamal that as many as 25% of buildings in Cairo and Giza governorates have building code violations that make them structurally unsound (watch, runtime 4:10).

Over on TEN TV, Amr Abdel Hamid was on about efforts to reign-in the tuktuk, which House Transport Committee member Mohamed Zein said would be “quite impossible to ban.” The committee has been drawing up legislation that would regulate the tuktuk, he said, and proposals on the table include drug testing drivers periodically and restricting tuktuks to specific streets and locations (watch, runtime 4:13).

Meanwhile on Hona Al Asema, Dina Zahra (who’s filling in for Lamees Al Hadidi) spoke to Daqahliyah Governor Ahmed Shaarawy about the New Mansoura City, where construction should begin in about 10 days. The first phase of the city, which is expected to be home to 650k residents, should be ready in two years’ time (watch, runtime 8:57).

Over on Yahduth fi Misr, political commentator Mostafa El Fekki resumed his regular slot to tell Sherif Amer that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has a good chance of winning the May 2018 presidential elections.