Who cares about Hosni Mubarak?

A smart new way of doling out subsidised bread has made Egypt more sated and stable

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has introduced a smart card system for subsidised bread to ensure every poor family receives its daily allowance. Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

Hosni Mubarak's fall once symbolised the promise of the Arab Spring in Egypt, as well as the visceral intensity of the people's anger at the former dictator. But nearly four years on, there's been little initial reaction to news that he has successfully fought all the charges brought against him and that he could theoretically be released any day, pending a retrial. Some might read this as apathy, others as a sign that Egypt has moved on from the tumultuous days of 2011. Some might argue that people's frustrations are now focused elsewhere than on the 86-year-old who ruled Egypt for 30 years. Others might say there's growing indifference towards Mr Mubarak, whose last head of military intelligence, Abdel Fattah El Sisi, is now steering the ship of state with verve and some strikingly good initiatives.

One of these is the so-called “smart card” system for subsidised bread. It ensures that every poor family will receive its daily allowance of five loaves per person per day. Earlier, there was no particular method in the way bakeries doled out their government-subsidised wares. It was on a first-come-first-served basis and early birds could even buy extra loaves to feed their livestock, leaving little for those who turned up at the bakery later in the day. But the introduction of smart cards in 17 of Egypt’s 29 provinces has been a great success because the system works fairly, leaves little to chance and cuts out waste and corruption. This will help the government to cut back on wheat imports – it is the world’s largest importer – and save foreign exchange. More importantly, the poor are getting fed and Mr El Sisi appears to have made headway in solving a problem that his predecessors could not. He has also made progress in lancing one of the festering sources of economic discontent.

Back to Mr Mubarak and the courts. His is not the only high profile case running through Egypt’s legal system. But as the smart cards show, most of the real story of Egypt’s slow but steady metamorphosis may be elsewhere.