Mazabuka Central UPND member of parliament Gary Nkombo has described Minister of Justice Given Lubinda’s resignation prank as an attention-seeking move.

And Nkombo says the UPND will not allow Lubinda to sneak the Electoral Processes Bill and Public Order Act bill through Parliament without proper procedure.

Last Thursday, Lubinda pulled a prank resignation on his fellow MPs in Parliament by taking a back bench seat to provoke debate after a letter purported to have been authored by him went viral, suggesting that he had resigned.

Reacting to Lubinda’s stunt, Nkombo said Lubinda did not take governance issues seriously.

“Well that is typical seeking-attention! It was an attention-seeking prank, which only he understands why he behaved like that. Because issues of governance are very serious and they should not be taken lightly! You see, we have learnt about the dismissal of (Moses) Mawere (former Sports Minister) and the reshuffles, with what Mr Lubinda did yesterday, we still have a duty to authenticate that development so I don’t know why he decided to do that,” Nkombo said.

And explaining why UPND MPs walked out of parliament on Friday after the Public Order Act Amendment and the Electoral Process Act Amendment Bills were tabled, Nkombo said UPND MPs would not allow the two bills to be tabled without following proper laid down procedure.

“There’s much more I need to say about him (Lubinda) regarding today’s comment after we left Parliament when we walked out. He made a very empty statement! He said that we get paid for attending Parliament, and that our walkout was tantamount to abuse of public funds! Now, we come from the Commonwealth parliamentary system where walking out on a decision that is not right by anyone, including the person in the chair, is a convention. It is allowed. And today, we learnt how he really wanted to sneak in the Electoral Processes Bill and the Public Order Bill. Bills which are anchored on the Constitution,” said Nkombo.

“And so, Honorable Jack Mwiimbu raised a point of order. And the Speaker indicated that he had been informed by the same Minister (Lubinda) that the act of bringing the Bill on the order paper for second reading, the Speaker has been assured that it will not go any further than that and that is totally unprocedural! The Speaker’s decision has now been formally challenged through the standing orders. And this is the first time to have heard although the provision is there, we have agreed and resolved we are going to challenge that decision by the Speaker because the ruling he made was unprocedural. It is not a bilateral matter between him and the Minister of Justice; this is an issue of public concern. So, him and the Minister of Justice cannot agree that we are going to terminate at this point because when the Bill comes for the second reading, it is ripe for debate so at what point was he going to stop the debate?”