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{
    "id": 997170,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/997170/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 120,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "parliamentary party or coalition of parties from a committee on the basis of having granted the Member the nomination to the Committee; and, (v) whether there is any lacuna or misapplication of the Standing Orders with respect to nomination into and discharge of Members from Committees, and if so, what is the appropriate remedy. Hon. Members, the issues for which the Member sought my guidance are fundamental to the functioning of the House as they relate to the mode of inclusion and exclusion of a Member from the Committees of the House. Before I proceed to address the issues for determination, permit me to remind the House that this is not the first time that the Speaker has been invited to guide on questions of membership to select committees and discharge there from. Certainly, this is an illustration that one cannot perfectly delink parliamentary politics from the legislature and that the decision to discipline Members is primarily vested in the political parties, but it always finds its way into the legislature. Indeed, allow me to refer to an expository by a Finnish Professor of Political Science, Dr. Kari Palonen in his write-up titled “Parliamentary Procedure as an Inventory of Disputes: A Comparison between Jeremy Bentham and Thomas Erskine May”. In that write-up, the Professor opines and I quote: “Parliamentary politics is inherently procedural…Parliamentary politics is not just politics that takes place in Parliament, but politics conducted in a parliamentary manner, in accordance with the rules and practices of parliamentary procedure.” Indeed, in the 11th Parliament, I was invited by the Leader of the Majority Party to guide on the application of Standing Order No.176 relating to discharge of Members from Committees. This was after the then Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) discharged the Member for Lungalunga, the Hon. Khatib Mwashetani, MP, and others from several Committees. In a Considered Ruling that I rendered to the House on 30th November 2016, I addressed the following three Questions: (i) whether and to what extent Standing Order No. 176, as then framed, could be employed as a mechanism for enforcing party discipline for breaches outside the proceedings of the House or its Committees; (ii) whether the provisions of Standing Order No. 176, as then framed were to be applied against Members of the House by instigation of or order of persons other than Members of the House; and, (iii) whether Standing Order No.176 as then framed, adequately protected the rights of"
}