Court throws out 46 UPND MPs petition…

Fri, 07 Jul 2017 10:51:35 +0000

They remain suspended from parliament

By CHIKUMBI KATEBE

 THE Lusaka High Court has dismissed a petition by 46 UPND members of parliament who were challenging their suspension from the National Assembly.

Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Patrick Matibini suspended the 46 MPs for failure to comply with House rules when they deliberately absconded the Presidential address to the House.

The MPs applied for leave to seek judicial review of the Speaker’s decision to suspend them for boycotting President Edgar Lungu’s State of the Nation address for a second time since September 2016.

The matter came up for ruling yesterday before High Court Justice Petronella Ngulube who threw out the application citing there being no arguable case fit for further investigation at a full interparty hearing.

Ms Justice Ngulube said she was not convinced that she needed to exercise her discretion to grant judicial review and granted cost to the respondents.

She said there was on procedural impropriety and there was no issue worthy of a substantive hearing as the lawmakers were given an opportunity to be heard by the Committee on Privileges on the charge of absenteeism from the National Assembly on March 17, 2017 to which they ably responded through their advocates.

Nalikwanda MP, Geoffrey Lungwangwa and others sought leave to apply for judicial review on grounds that they were merely expressing their freedom and right if association by staying away from the House on the two occasions there was the  Presidential address.

They alleged that the Speaker’s decision was illegal as it infringed on their freedoms and rights as provided for under the Republican Constitution and that they were representatives of the electorates who voted them into office and that their constituencies would be affected with their absence from parliament.

Dr Matibini in his ruling withdrew all the 46 MPs’ salaries, allowances and any privileges that came with that position for the 30 days duration of the suspension from the National Assembly including access to the Parliament grounds and the National Assembly Motel respectively.