Wed, 19 Jul 2017 10:35:53 +0000
By BENNIE MUNDANDO
IT IS uninspiring to belong to Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) because of its failure to provide proper guidance to the citizens on critical national issues as the case is with the threatened state of emergency which it has purposefully misinterpreted, lawyer Hobday Kabwe has charged.
On Monday, LAZ said the executive should not have invoked Article 31 despite such powers being given to the President and questioned whether or not a quorum was formed at the National Assembly when the declaration was approved.
But speaking to the Daily Nation, Mr. Kabwe said there was a deliberate ploy by some individuals and institution to propagate their political views by purposefully failing to distinguish between a threatened state of emergency and a full state of emergency as provided for under Article 30 of the constitution.
He said the declaration of a threatened state of emergency did not take away peoples’ rights enshrined in the constitution but was put in place in order to enhance the operations of the police to preserve law and order.
“It is uninspiring to belong to an association which remains quiet when people are asking serious questions on national affairs to a point where some people start saying that what is obtaining in Zambia currently is a state of emergency simply because they want to make mere political statements intent on misleading the world and create some political effect.
“The only circumstances which entail a full state of emergence are explained under article 30 of the constitution and pursuant to the Emergency Act 108. Under this article, the rights of the citizens are taken away and those rights are explicitly explained under Article 25 of the Constitution of Zambia,” Mr. Kabwe said.
He said there was no reason to demonise President Edgar Lungu over the current state of affairs because he had acted within the law where the rights of the citizens had been preserved adding that assertions that there was brutality by the police were imaginary as nothing of such had happened.
“President Lungu in the current circumstances has properly exercised his power because he is mindful of the fact that the rights of Zambians haven’t been taken away as some people are now trying to suggest that there is police brutality going on.
“You know, this declaration is merely to enhance the operative powers of the police under the regulations issued by the President pursuant to Act number 112 which is the preservation of public security and it does not take away peoples’ rights provided for in the Constitution,” he said.
He said when former president Frederick Chiluba made similar pronouncements in 1993 and the rights of citizens were taken away, he was advised to declare a full state of emergency to comply with the law, an advice he followed four days after declaring a state of threatened emergency.
“That is why when president Chiluba in 1993 declared the state of threatened emergency and detentions were effected, somewhere along the line, he was advised he could only go to such extents if he declared a full state of emergency so that certain rights enshrined in the constitution could be taken away from the people and four days later, he now declared a full state of emergency which is not what has been declared under the current circumstances,” he explained.
