{"id":16446,"date":"2022-02-18T19:23:49","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T19:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it"},"modified":"2022-02-18T19:44:48","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T19:44:48","slug":"concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it","title":{"rendered":"CONCOURT RULES GEARS CASE AGAINST PF MPs RIGHTLY BEFORE IT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>THE Constitutional Court has ruled that the matter in which GEARS Initiative Zambia has petitioned former Kabushi member of parliament Bowman Lusambo and eight others who had their seats nullified by the High Court for impersonating as member of parliament, is rightly before it.<\/p>\n

The Court says it has the power to determine the petition as former minister of foreign affairs Joseph Malanji has not demonstrated how the petition by GEARS to challenge his continuous attendance of parliamentary proceedings and others whose seats were nullified, was an abuse of court process.<\/p>\n

In this matter, GEARS wants the Constitutional Court to declare that Lusambo, Joseph Malanji, Mutotwe Kafwaya, Sibongile Mwamba, Luka Simumba, Allan Banda, Kabwe Chewe, Kalalwe Mukosha and Christopher Chibuye having been declared not duly elected by the Lusaka High Court are contravening the constitution by taking part in parliamentary business.<\/p>\n

It wants an order that the nine be barred by the court from attending sessions of the National Assembly, taking part in any business of Parliament and masquerading as members of parliament.<\/p>\n

GEARS is further seeking a declaration that the nullified parliamentary seats \u2013 Kabushi, Kwacha, Chimwemwe, Nakonde, Lunte, Lubansenshi, Kansama Central, Mkushi North and Chinsali will remain vacant until filled by appeal or a fresh election.<\/p>\n

During hearing of motion to dismiss the petition on a point of law at the lastsitting before Constitutional Court judges Ann Sitali, Mungeni Mulenga, Margaret Munalula, Palan Mulonda and Judy Mulongoti, lawyer representing Malanji, Joseph Chirwa argued that the Speaker aimed at scandalising the Court when she barred his client from attending parliamentary business.<\/p>\n

Chirwa said in relation to the remedy that the High Court registrar submits names of those who engaged in corrupt activities, the constitution is silent in relation to section 108(6)(C).<\/p>\n

He argued that Malanji was never found to have engaged in corrupt practices and the erroneous finding that he does not possess a grade 12 certificate was yet to be determined by the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our prayer that Malanji be allowed to start attending parliamentary business and given the dues that come with that office. The issue of High Court judgment being maybe final, is only applicable when there is no Appeal in the Constitutional Court,\u201d said Chirwa.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Mwelwa submitted that Malanji having appealed to the Constitutional Court was at liberty to remain in the National Assembly without obtaining a stay of execution of the High Court\u2019s judgment.<\/p>\n

But GEARS argued that the nullification of a parliamentary seat by the High Court was binding and could not be stayed by an appeal opposing the said decision.<\/p>\n

GEARS through its lawyer Meliluli Batakathi insisted that no court in Zambia had pronounced itself on whether a member of parliament who has appealed against the nullification of their election could participate in parliamentary business.<\/p>\n

Ruling on the matter, judge Sitali, on behalf of others, said that Malanji had not explained why the issues raised under the petition should be determined as preliminary issues as opposed to being dealt with during the determination of the petition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are of the view that the remaining issues raised in the notice of motion will be best dealt with within the context of the petition. For that reason, we find no merit in them and accordingly dismiss them. The motion wholly fails and is dismissed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

She counseled litigants against the tendency of seeking to have matters raised by way of petition disposed of as preliminary issues under Order 14A of the white book, particularly where the issues raised as preliminary issues could be raised in an answer to the petition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tendency merely delays the disposal of petitions and does not serve the interest of any of the parties to the petition. We therefore strongly discourage from raising unnecessary matters as preliminary issues,\u201d said judge Sitali.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe refer this matter back to the single judge of this court to schedule the petition for hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. THE Constitutional Court has ruled that the matter in which GEARS Initiative Zambia has petitioned former Kabushi member of parliament Bowman Lusambo and eight others who had their seats nullified by the High Court for impersonating as member of parliament, is rightly before it. The Court says it has the power to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":16445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[234,235,233],"class_list":["post-16446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zambia","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"\nCONCOURT RULES GEARS CASE AGAINST PF MPs RIGHTLY BEFORE IT - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE Constitutional Court has ruled that the matter in which GEARS Initiative Zambia has petitioned former Kabushi member ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CONCOURT RULES GEARS CASE AGAINST PF MPs RIGHTLY BEFORE IT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE Constitutional Court has ruled that the matter in which GEARS Initiative Zambia has petitioned former Kabushi member ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-18T19:23:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-18T19:44:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2022\/02\/img-620ff7174523a.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"CONCOURT RULES GEARS CASE AGAINST PF MPs RIGHTLY BEFORE IT\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-18T19:23:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-18T19:44:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it\"},\"wordCount\":674,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2022\/02\/img-620ff7174523a.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zambia\",\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/concourt-rules-gears-case-against-pf-mps-rightly-before-it\",\"name\":\"CONCOURT RULES GEARS CASE AGAINST PF MPs RIGHTLY BEFORE IT - 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