Patriotic Front (PF) Media Director Sunday Chanda says the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) statement on the Threatened State of Emergency is the most ridiculous since the invocation of Article 31.

And Chanda says President Edgar Lungu did not speak emotionally when he challenged LAZ to form its own political party.

Speaking when he featured on Radio Christian Voice’s Chat Back programme yesterday, Chanda said that the statement from LAZ was not credible as its president Linda Kasonde had failed to acknowledge acts of arson.

“Coming to the different stakeholders who have commented on the invocation of Article 31 by his Excellency the President, I think that the most ridiculous statement came from the Law Association of Zambia and it was most unfortunate because LAZ is supposed to be the custodian of laws away from the courts or from any other judicial arm and it’s a professional body where all lawyers subscribe in terms of membership,” Chanda said.

“Now, you know very well that unless my sister Linda Kasonde lives on another island and she has not seen a clear pattern of arson related events or fires targeting courts, targeting markets, targeting ZESCO pylons and unless she does not feel what the marketeer at city market felt losing their livelihood and unless she does not believe that the Zambia Police in their investigations have ruled out an electrical fault and as the Inspector General of Police did announce to the public and Ms Linda Kasonde my sister is very much aware that the IG said that fire was caused by deliberate ignition, that is an act of sabotage, that was arson and this is not just one incident, these are repeated and related incidents happening more or less the same time and there is a pattern here and I know my sister Linda has the capacity as a senior lawyer to connect the dots but she has deliberately decided to stay away from connecting the dots.”

Chanda said there were members within LAZ who had political ambitions; reiterating President Lungu’s challenge that the association should form its own political party.

“Now, I said that was the most ridiculous because for starters, the statement clearly shows LAZ’s disposition to criticise government…saying things like ‘whether it is reasonable for the President to invoke Article 31 can only be determined if the matter goes to court’, really? The truth of the matter is that anyone who looks at the statement, even though there was a commendation to the sugar-coated statement but at the end of it all that was a speculative opinion, it was not a legal opinion that was coming from the Law Association of Zambia. I don’t know where LAZ is getting all this from because first of all no one has gone to court to challenge whether the quorum has met or not. This is not a matter of court, it is nowhere in the courts of law,” Chanda said.

“I think that there are elements within LAZ who have got political ambitions and the best they can do is that don’t abuse a platform as credible as the Law Association of Zambia. Step out and either you join a political party or form a political party and let’s meet you on the battle ground you don’t have to hide behind the veil of the Law Association of Zambia which is a credible professional body to champion simplicity political agenda, it doesn’t hold up. That statement is ridiculous and a very big embarrassment to the Law Association of Zambia.”

And Chanda dispelled people’s opinions that President Lungu was emotional when he responded to the LAZ statement.

“The President did not act of emotions. The President responded to that question in a humorous way and he was smiling when responding. Unless you want the President not to smile or to laugh, he is a human being and he will laugh and he was relaxed when he took that question from a journalist but let me say that when politics are disguised by a professional body, it is our duty as a political party to lift the veil and say this is not professional advice you are just playing politics…we have been in this game for so long and we know when politics are being disguised as professional advice,” Chanda said.

Asked what he felt about the continued political tension in the country, Chanda boasted that PF would be in existence for over 100 years, challenging the opposition to accept results.

“I think before moving to that, let me put a very clear perspective here. You know it’s very sad that the UPND does not want to recognise the fact that PF is a reality, that PF is here to stay and PF is here for a long long time to come. Unless the UPND plans on disbanding, the PF is still going to be around and I think that the earlier they begin to accept this reality the better, they’ve got to deal with this reality that the PF is here and it is in charge and we will leave it to the Zambian people judge us out of 100 based on the promises we made,” said Chanda.

“The African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa has been in existence for over 100 years and we intend to have the Patriotic Front in existence for over 100 years and every after five years, we will keep on going back to the Zambian people to renew our mandate based on what we would have delivered and based on the promises that we would have kept alive.”