3 Bills await MPs as sittings resume today

By JIMMY CHIBUYE
PARLIAMENT, which adjourned sine die on December 13 last year, will resume sittings today and is expected to consider three Bills.
The House, which opens for the commencement of the Third Session of the 11th  National Assembly, is expected to consider the Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Bill, the Service Commissions (Amendment) Bill and the Business Regulatory Bill.
This is contained in a statement issued yesterday by National Assembly media liaison officer Matthew Mukelabai.
The Legal Practitioners (Amendment) Bill’s objective is to amend the Legal Practitioners Act to permit the advertising of legal services.
The Service Commission (Amendment) Bill aims at amending the Service Commission Act to reconstitute the membership of the Judicial Service Commission.
The Business Regulatory Bill aims at providing for an efficient, cost-effective and accessible business licensing system, a set of principles and interventions to guide regulatory agencies when regulating and licensing business activities in accordance with a law under their mandate, the establishment of regulatory services and the establishment of business regulatory review agencies.
Mr Mukelabai said the House expects to have a new member who will be elected from the Katuba by-election on February 25.
The House will also see changes of the sitting arrangement following the resignation of Kasama Central MP Geoffrey Mwamba, who has been replaced by Minister of Home Affairs Edgar Lungu, and Mr Lungu’s place will be occupied by his former deputy Ngosa Simbyakula.
In the previous sittings, Mr Mukelabai said the House sat for 48 days and the main business was the consideration of the 2014 national budget and related budget legislation.
He said the House considered and passed 11 Bills which include the Appropriation, the Competition and Consumer Protection (Amendment), the Customs and Excise (Amendment), the Environmental Management (Amendment) and the Fees and Fines (Amendment).
Other bills are the Income Tax (Amendment), the Patents and Companies Registration Agency (Amendment), the Property Transfer Tax (Amendment), the Weights and Measures (Amendment) and the Zambia Development Agency 2006 (Amendment).
Mr Mukelabai said the House further considered 235 questions for oral and written answers, one private members’ motion and three motions to adopt Parliamentary Select Committee reports.
He said the House also considered 21 ministerial statements explaining Government positions on various matters and nine annual reports from Government and quasi-government institutions tabled before the House.
Mr Mukelabai further said the House received six new Members of Parliament that were elected from six by-elections which took place in Chipata Central, Kafulafuta, Mkaika, Mkushi North, Solwezi East and Mansa Central.
“Unfortunately in the same period, the House lost through death the services of Deputy Minister of Health and Katuba MP Patrick Chikusu,” he said.