Minister of Justice Given Lubinda has announced a two phased roadmap for the refinement of the Republican Constitution which will commence in March 2019 at a cost of K2 million.
Mr. Lubinda says in phase one, the refinement process will deal with the review of the Public Order Act.
In a ministerial statement to Parliament, Mr. Lubinda has acknowledged that this review requires consensus building by all stakeholders before it is brought to Parliament for enactment.
Mr. Lubinda says in order to reach the desired consensus; there will be a Parliamentarians consultative workshop which will be facilitated by experts to be seconded by the Inter -parliamentary Union (IPU).
He notes that this workshop will be followed by a validation workshop involving representatives of institutions and individuals who made submissions towards the amendment of the Public Order Act.
Mr. Lubinda says his Ministry will thereafter finalise what this workshop will validate before Cabinet could approve any amendments to the Act and the amendment Bill of the Act is published.
He has told the House phase two of the constitution refinement process, which he says may start before phase one is concluded, will deal with the Republican Constitution itself.
Mr. Lubinda says this phase will include presentation to a workshop of Parliamentarians of the Zero draft Constitution Amendment Bill emanating from the Siavonga experts’ workshop of February 2018.
He says this will be followed by presentation of the same zero draft bill to political parties for their input after which the same draft bill will be presentation to the church mother bodies for their input.
Mr. Lubinda says these three steps will be done simultaneously after which the Ministry of Justice will consolidate the recommendations.
The Minister of Justice says this will be followed by the finalization of the recommendations by his Ministry before Cabinet can approve the proposed amendments to the Constitution.
He states that once the Cabinet approves the proposed amendments, a Constitution Amendment Bill will be published before it can be taken to Parliament for enactment.
Sounds goods for the fine tuning of the 2016 Amendment…….what of the Bill of Rights? What is the road map for the Bill of Rights enhancement? What is the road map for the referendum? Or should we just as well forget it Mwa Lungu to enhance the Bill of Rights?
How the partizan PF cabinet will approve an acceptable final draft of national constitution remains to be seen given the selfish nature of PF
This issue of constitution has become a cliché.How many times are we going to enact the inenactable? A lot of resources have been spent on constitution and nothing tangible has come out.Where do we go wrong with constitution formulation? Is it one way of siphoning money from the treasury in a corrupt way? Many are the terms we have referred to constitution as standing the test of time.The problem is that we formulate constitutions with ulterior motives.We have no consideration for the generation to come. We are a selfish and very egoistic generation.A constitution that stands the test of time is beacon of hope for our children and grand children.We are a generation that has no vision for a better nation. What sort of a constitution do we want to bequeath to our children?
Bloggers are silent, if you want to hide something from the ignorant, put it in a Book.
Injustice Minister is not serious same thing keeps dragging until you are retired in 2021. Kanganja has abused public order act severally we are tired of his police brutality .
These guys know how to waste money, meanwhile our children have their meal allowance scrapped and many have to wait months to get paid and these guys have money to waste on a piece of paper they will abuse with their useless concourt which misinterprets clear and straightforward laws. This is a big joke having the lawless make you laws
Waste of time and resources. Too much power invested in the executive. He is the constitution and owner of Zambia so nothing can change until he says so. This borrowed system is not suitable for Zambia. We better find another not maltipartism and the so called democracy which remains a rocket science in zambia.