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{
    "id": 67677,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/67677/?format=api",
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    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me start by wishing the Members of this House and yourself a happy new year, this being my first time to take the Floor. I also wish to thank the Members for having interrupted their recess upon being called to come and do some national duty of passing or discussing some very critical constitutional implementation Bills which we all expected to be available for discussion. However, as Members will remember, the Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs pleaded with the House for permission to withdraw those Bills yesterday. He explained the circumstances under which we have had to withdraw those Bills; because of the consultation that is required between the Commission that has been formed by this House and the various Committees and the Ministry, so that we have the Bills coming in the proper sequence. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as Members will also be aware, according to our Standing Orders, when a special session is called, it can only discuss the special matters for which it has been called. This was mainly the constitutional bills and other matters related to the implementation of the Constitution. That being the case, even when we met in the House Business Committee yesterday, it was very difficult to allocate any other business except the special business for which the special session had been called. We are now faced with this situation; that we need to get that special business to mature before it can then be brought on the Floor of this House. It is a blessing in disguise that Members will now have an opportunity to get back to their constituencies and finish some of the matters that were pending, including the special matter that was the subject of discussion this morning; how we can at the constituency level sort out the issues related to the drought affecting our constituencies. Members will also prepare for the dams that require desilting, the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) meetings that require to do those programmes and monitoring the feeding of our people. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we were all prepared and thought that we would have the constitutional Bills in place. We set up the Constitution Implementation Committee (CIC) which also needs to have time. We do not want to have any Bill being challenged in future; that it came to the House before the CIC had an opportunity to look at it. We believe that between now and 1st February, 2011, all that will have been done. The Bills will have been published and by the time we come to this House, Parliament will not be seen to be legislating in vain, because whatever will be legislated will be within the legal and logical sequence of things. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I do not need to belabor this point because I would like to give hon. Members an opportunity to discuss this matter. You had indicated that those who had not contributed should take advantage of this and contribute on the drought situation. With those few remarks, I beg to move and ask Dr. Khalwale, who was very passionate about this matter in the House Business Committee (HBC) to second this Motion."
}