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The sitting of the National assembly has been extended to next Wednesday after it spent the whole afternoon on Wednesday conducting caucuses over the status of the court order Inspector General of Police Mary Nangwale obtained last week to remain in office.
The House was scheduled to debate the K1 billion (about $9m) loan scheme on Wednesday.
The House had just resumed sitting at 2PM when Speaker Rodwell Munyenyembe announced it would hold a caucus. Those sitting in the public gallery, and journalists in the press gallery were ordered out. Thirty minutes later lawyer representing Parliament in the Nangwale issue, Kalekeni Kaphale, was seen coming out of the building.
Sources said he briefed MPs that he made the application to challenge the injunction, and the hearing had been scheduled for Friday. This information did not go down well with various MPs, resulting into respective parties breaking into caucuses. The business committee met last.
But some MPs remained in the House, others kept drinking water and tea in the Banana Room, while others loitered around the grounds of the New State House. Later, a few were seen driving off. A senior police officer was also heard releasing some of his officers.
The House was called to order again at around 5PM. Leader of Government Business Yusuf Mwawa, when called upon by Munyenyembe, told the House various caucuses had agreed that business should continue, and that the House should rise next Wednesday instead of Friday.
Sources said opposition MPs demanded that the sitting be extended so they know the outcome of the injunction hearing on Friday for further action. Mwawa also said the caucuses had agreed that the House should meet the whole day on Monday and Wednesday. The meetings are normally held only in the afternoon on those days.
His proposal that the meeting be extended for 30 minutes to allow Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe present the K1 billion loan was rejected hands down. Leader of the opposition John Tembo led the fray, proposing that such an important matter could not be considered when MPs were itching to go home.
Mwawa attracted more protests when he said instead Gondwe should just circulate documents relating to the loan so MPs could read overnight and contribute meaningfully on Thursday.
“It is just a request. Those who want will get the documents. Those who do not want can leave the documents and argue with empty heads tomorrow,” said a seemingly irritated Mwawa. Tembo came to Mwawa’s rescue, saying it was important the documents be circulated.
Apart from bickering and impromptu adjournments over Nangwale since the sitting started on March 30, the House has only approved the revised estimates of the budget. No bill has been discussed; others have been pushed to the next sitting. Several business is being postponed, but MPs still get their daily allowances.
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