PF media director Sunday Chanda says the ruling party is ready to face the UPND in court to reveal more details about the opposition party’s alleged involvement in supporting gay rights.

Last Friday, UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma said his party had begun the process of taking legal action against individuals in the Patriotic Front who were propagating that the opposition party supported gay rights.

“In fact, we have singled out certain individuals, who are propagating those lies! We intend to take legal action against them. I think the process has already started, we have had discussions with our lawyers, they will soon be dancing to the tune in court,” warned Kakoma.

But in an interview, Tuesday, Chanda said the UPND’s decision to take the matter to court would give Zambians an opportunity to know who was really telling the truth.

“We are challenging the opposition United Party for National Development (UPND), a full member of the Africa Liberal Network (ALN), not to backtrack on their decision to take the Patriotic Front (PF) to court over our their gay rights agenda. Otherwise, we are waiting to face them in court for more revealing details. We are itching for it!” Chanda cautioned.

“We say so because this will give Zambians an opportunity to know, firstly, who is telling the truth and, secondly, UPND’s dark secrets. We are ready for court and we hope they are not just issuing their usual threats. As a matter of fact, that will be the first correct decision they would have made since formation.”

He insisted that the UPND would not manage to silence questions on the matter with “court threats”.

“We still insist that UPND is pushing an agenda they do not want Zambians to know about as a matter of strategy. We challenge them to be open and candid with the Zambian people and their funders, too,” he urged.

“We are calling on the UPND to face the Zambian people, the Church, traditional leaders…and own up on their membership with ALN and their shared value-system. They’ll not manage to silence the questions with fake court threats!”

Chanda said the UPND must admit to Zambians that the party was ready to reform the law on gay rights.

“UPND has dark secrets and one of them is this. Let them just admit so that we ask Zambians whether they are ready to reform the law to accommodate what the UPND is pushing for,” said Chanda.

“UPND must be prepared to convince the Church, and Zambians in general, that time has come for Zambia to embrace their liberal agenda and maybe Zambians will listen. Maybe, the churches will support them. Maybe the traditional leaders and ordinary Zambians will support them.”