Egypt's government-formed human rights centre has urged the president to scrap emergency laws in effect for 24 years in order to boost political reform, a member of the group said yesterday. The call was made in the National Council for Human Rights' first annual report, given to President Hosni Mubarak last week, said Hafez Abou Saada, a member of the group. The council has requested a meeting with Mubarak to discuss the report and its recommendations but were told his "circumstances were not permitting." Opposition parties and independent rights group have stepped up their calls for the end of emergency laws, which restrict political gatherings and give security forces wide powers of arrest. But the centre's call was significant because it is a body formed by the government specifically to advise it on rights issues.