 I wish to recognize the presence of the PF whip, chief whip and also the deputy whip and all honourable members of parliament present. Countrymen and women, we are here today, this afternoon as members of parliament from the patriotic front party protesting against the mana in which members of parliament are being treated by the police. The matter was raised on the floor and Madam Speaker gave an opportunity to the Minister of Home Affairs to clarify on the mana in which members of parliament are being arrested, harassed, abducted, name it. We have seen a trend by the police in the recent past to abduct members of parliament, incarcerate them, detain them in police cells, deny to give them bond. Even when they can be given bond as promised by President Dhaka in the Hitchilema, these members of parliament, countrymen and women, are elected officials. They are representatives of the people, they are lawmakers and to confer that status on them. Some of the privileges that they enjoy are things like diplomatic passports. Not necessarily that those passports are supposed to be utilized locally as alleged by the Honourable Minister of Home Affairs but it confirms that the government system recognizes the importance of these Honourable Members. These Honourable Members are highly respected whenever they travel out of the country because of the role that they play in the government system. But locally they are being treated like criminals. I want to make one point very clear. We are not here to proclaim or claim that members of parliament are immune from arrests. That is not our position. Our position is that they still remain amenable to the law but the manner of arrest must be orderly. Must be in such a way that they are arresting somebody who is respected by society. What is wrong with giving a member a call out or indeed bringing a call out to parliament so that the member can present himself or herself before the police? We have said this time and again that this country is slowly sliding into a police state where the police are the law unto themselves. The police are giving instructions straight from the state house on how to harass these Honourable Members of Parliament. And we know the scheme. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see what is going on. The president of this republic, President Dhaka in the Hichilema, intends to instill fear in these Members of Parliament to try and get them on the UPND side. These Honourable Members that you are seeing here, countrymen and women are Honourable Members. These are citizens that have stood by you, the voters, and they vowed to continue providing checks and balances in this country. So when they have been unable to attract the attention of these Honourable Members, they have resorted to intimidation and persecution. So today's protest, the working out of parliament was to send a message firstly to the Minister of Home Affairs that will not stand idle and allow our members to be harassed in the manner that the police have continued to do. This is also a warning to the Inspector General of Police, act within the law, act with respect. The people that you are seeing here are Members of Parliament, elected Members of Parliament. Each one of these have got over 20, 30, 40, 50,000 people that voted for them. They therefore cannot be treated in the manner that you, Inspector General of Police, have continued to act. There were recent reports that police intend to train some of their staff. Our recommendation as Members of Parliament is that we start with the top command because so far the police have been very disappointing in the manner that they have handled the police matters. We want to appeal to you, Inspector General of Police, ensure that your top command is fully trained to even understand the ways in which Members of Parliament or elected Members of Parliament should be treated. We are not asking for anything out of this world. Nothing unusual is the respect of Members of Parliament. These are lawmakers. Ladies and gentlemen, we thought this was very, very important because just a few days ago we had Honorable Robert Kalimi. He arrested and detained, was it for two nights? The other one was Honorable Christopher Shaka Fusua who was abducted from a shopping mall whilst he was with his family. Something that we want to condemn in the strongest terms. We don't expect Members of Parliament to be treated like common criminals. We will not accept that. Ladies and gentlemen, I thought this was very important to inform the nation that we wish to protest and we are happy that Madam Speaker has reserved the ruling on that particular matter. We hope that that ruling will be rendered soon so that the police are directed. Members of Parliament are lawmakers. We indeed have other options. We have options like motions which we want to bring on the floor of the house until we get that respect that these Members of Parliament deserve. Without much ado, I would now like to invite Honorable Robert Kalimi just to add a few words to this. Thank you very much. Lead of the position, the chief whip, Members of Parliament, the media house. To me, I'm just getting very, very much worried Members of Parliament because as far as I'm concerned, the separation of power that is executive, parliament and the judiciary. The power of the speaker is slowly fading out from my hands. It is now getting into the executive. May I remind the nation to say if anything happened to the president today or maybe there was some re-run of election, the speaker was supposed to act as a president. To me, the speaker is number two in this country. And if a Member of Parliament can be arrested without even the consent of the speaker, then I wonder where we are going. I can give an example. Can a Cabinet Minister be arrested without the consent of the president? The answer is no. The president is supposed to be aware. We are not asking for any favour so we can't be arrested. No, we can be arrested. I can just give myself as an example whereby I never even resisted I was caught for something I was treated like a criminal I was denied a bond for just fake fake fake news. They all can't... I have 700 people in my district. That is a population plus who are looking for me. 700. 700,000. Almost a million. People are looking for me. I had 76,000 registered voters and everyone is complaining that this man is a thief a Member of Parliament. To me, this is unacceptable and to me, let the speaker take responsibility because I am taught even the previous speaker they can't arrest the Member of Parliament without the consent of one of the most speakers. To me, the rooting which the speaker made now maybe she would have made it she would have reserved that before even Jatji and let me remind he is not the first Minister of Home Affairs and he is not the last Minister of Home Affairs this excitement as if he is jumping on a kangaroo to just be excited not even answering properly he is not the first Minister we are the ministers power of ministers in that office the leader of opposition he never meant PF even said even UPND if they want to arrest UPND Members of Parliament they should be respected we are talking about Members of Parliament not PF for God's sake are UPNDs not Members of Parliament? they are. but when we say Members of Parliament they think that we are talking about PF are the PF the only people they accuse of doing these things what would happen if they say wajaki mubu is arrested at one time even today he became a backbencher would he love to be treated like that and I want to remind him I saved as a foreign service as a diplomat for the past 80 years he should not come here and educate us the role of a diplomatic passport how it is treated to start with the diplomatic passport is not given to anybody why is it not given to his wife I am giving an example he is made if the diplomatic passport is something which is this we do not respect these things it comes with the name it takes a lot of things for someone to become a Member of Parliament we are not saying people should not arrest us though you can arrest me I am not above the law but the question the manner in which you treat a Member of Parliament you can't I am salutable I am salutable as a Member of Parliament not whereby even a police officer is talking to a Member of Parliament his hand, his pocket the Member of Parliament who does that where are we heading we can't accept this and we are not going to allow this and that's the reason why we are here the house has been reduced to nothing and we are not going to accept it to do this and I am urging those Members of Parliament for PFOA not here thank you very much thank you thank you Honourable Members thank you Mr Officer thank you thank you Leader of Opposition Chief Whip and fellow Members of Parliament so you saw today on the floor of the house where we have seen the continued abuse of the police by the Minister of Home Affairs where on the other hand they are saying that they respect the rule of law and only go for those that do not have immunity allow me to take you back on what happened on the 3rd of May where we saw over Zillas Police sent by Honourable Jack Mwimbo and his government to the house of our 60th Republican President His Excellency Mr Aigatagualungu who by the constitution is dressed by immunity we saw over Zillas Officers trying to cut the gates to his house and some of us who rushed there to say that was wrong we have seen Jack Mwimbo and the UPND Government sending over Zillas Police officers on us so that they can silence us and to say this that some of us hate injustice and will continue to speak against injustice what happened today on the floor of the house where my colleague Honourable Mwimbo Nia Zulu wondered the speaker to rule that members of parliament should be respected at least they must be accorded some dignity when being called to the police station we saw the minister come and lie on the floor of the house some of us will not allow that we will defend this country we are going to defend the democracy of our nation and the continued abuse of the police by the new dawn government is something we are going to challenge going forward I was putting cells with 125 criminals at Nusaka Central Prison I mean Nusaka Central cells there we had hardcore criminals against the directive of the president that people should be arrested the second day taken to court we have people who have stayed there over six months somebody is arrested very petty charge and they don't see the day in court we have people at Kavwata police station leader of opposition I'm aware that there are some a wing of police that beat up a suspect and that suspect died the following day they brought them at Kavwata charged the inmates who were in that cell with murder just to cover up the abuse by the police and these boys are still insurrated at Kavwata police station without being taken to court from now onwards we are going to take upon the police we are going to make sure that the police excesses are challenged we are going to challenge a lies that are going to be told on the house on the floor of the house that house is a house of laws is governed by standing orders our standing order 65 does not allow that a minister tells lies I was abducted on the 25th of May by a plainclothes policeman Adnovera Mo we had a minister of home affairs telling lies that and we never obliged to the call out I was not giving a call out myself but instead I was treated like a common criminal we are not asking for so much we are elected members of parliament all of us seated here are honorable members the constitution gives us that status but to silence us the UPND government wants to use the police who challenge this going forward we are going to challenge this zambia is our country and will not allow anyone to abuse the powers that are given to them by our constitution the same constitution recognizes the executive, the judicial and the legislature and so all we are asking is can we also be respected thank you so much just a minute when I was put in cells I found those boys apparently they were challenging police station where the police beat a captain grab his phones NRC have you ever seen a criminal go with a phone in the cells? the answer is no every time when you reach by the reception they say they beat this guy, grabbed his money and they already instructed those boys to say beat him up then the boys refused the boys told them they went dead they killed the boys and those police officers today in the street drinking in the champagne when that is a man who has a family is a dead person we are calling upon the police and one boy has stayed there 100 days the boy has spent 100 days the boys have refused to say even if you take us even for 20 years one day we are going to do it because we never killed that captain so we are calling if these are issues which Jack will be let's get what is the excitement coming from? this is unacceptable so thank you thank you honourable members before I call upon honourable Munia Zulu as our last speaker I want to say that it's clear getting the testimonies from our colleagues who are in police cells that under the UPND government there is a continued violation of human rights suspects are being tortured this is a constitutional democracy the rule of law must reign suspects have rights so we are going to raise the number of issues in the interest of suspects now that we know that a number of brothers and sisters still incarcerated who are being tortured every other day and tortured as resulted in loss of life it's very very unfortunate that this is happening under the new dawn government a government of angels that promised to govern this country using the rule of law what we are seeing is exact opposite it's not the first report that we are getting of torture I'm sure you remember there were some the teenagers who were tortured by the army not very long ago we wish to join others in condemning the torture of suspects and police cells as we also condemn these continued arbitrary arrests Honorable members, I want to make this appeal I want to call upon each and every member of parliament to put on their armor and fight for the restoration of the rule of law in this country let us stand up and fight for the rule of law if we don't we are the only representatives that the 19 million Zambians are relying upon to restore the rule of law so members of parliament this is a call to all of you to stand up courageously and fight for the restoration of the rule of law in this country I take this opportunity to invite Honorable Munia Zulu to add a few comments to this thank you very much our leader of opposition my message first of all is very simple and basic I am one of the victims of the police abductions what Honorable Jack Mwimbu taught the house today was a lie and in his line have come to one confirmation just like they detained Chris Zumanizimba woodlands police speaking on behalf of the people of eastern province I must state that this is nothing to do with our status as members of parliament what is happening as a matter of fact is ethnic cleansing this is ethnic cleansing let's not be diplomatic about it his response is there was saying what happened previously Honorable Bonkompos said they are here to revenge of whatever happened we are not in parliament but what is happening is ethnic cleansing and was saying not to it if we don't speak to these issues and pretend that there is no ethnic cleansing taking place and we are doing a disservice to the Zambian people Honorable Jack Mwimbu must be put in order and be told that this is one Zambia one nation yes they enjoy the temporal authority of having state power because they are from the south but I think it's not enough reason for them to be sending same officers from the southern region to be abducting members I think this must come to an end I needed to put this on record it's not about our status as members of parliament how possible is it that the only criminals or only suspects are people that are from the north and the east are you telling the Zambian people that there is no criminal in southern province there is no criminal in western province there is no suspect in north western province all suspects are Nyanjan members speaking and I think we cannot pretend that when you speak to these issues then your labor has been tribal we've got to speak to this matter we can no longer pretend and say no the Zambia may tribalist that's so sensitive to this matter because they practice it they eat it and they enjoy it so we are victims of ethnicity that is taking place I think this matter needs to be put to rest even in the house people say no one people which one people how do you raise a point of order if I raise a point of order on a point of order the presiding office I will say no you can't raise a matter on a point of order but if people on the left on the right raise a point of order on a point of order a ruling is delivered why is the consistency so the ethnic cleansing taking place is something that we should speak to it if we pretend we will have a situation of what happened in other jurisdictions we must protect this country and if at all they want to play that game we will play it better thank you thank you very much honorable members I think one other important point that was made was that when you look at all these arrests against MPs and other people they are being conducted by the same people it's the same crack squad of police officers this is the police service why is it that it's only those names whenever there's been an arrest whether it's Ronald Chitotela it's the same names so this is the reason why we are not wrong to say they've got specific instructions to harass members of the PF to harass members of parliament because if it was ordinary functions of the police we would have had other police officers carrying on that particular function is the same group of police officers so we are calling upon the Zambian people to resist this continued harassment like I said earlier put on your armor stand up and fight for the restoration of the rule of law I thank you ladies and gentlemen