The ongoing Parliamentary sessions are set to be extended
till next Wednesday to give Members of Parliament more time to work on three
bills as requested by President John Magufuli.
Parliament Speaker Mr Job Ndugai informed MPs yesterday
after question-time that the president had officially written to Parliament asking
MPs to debate and endorse three bills under a Certificate of Urgency –
prompting the House to extend its sessions to July 5, this year.
The bills in question include the Written Laws
(Miscellaneous Amendments) Act, 2017; the Natural Wealth and Contracts (Review
and Renegotiation of Unconscionable terms) Act, 2017; and the Natural Wealth
and Resources (Permanent Sovereignty) Act 2017.
According to Mr Ndugai, the Parliamentary Steering Committee
met
on Wednesday and discussed President Magufuli’s letter, complete with the
reasons behind tabling the laws on a Certificate of Urgency Terms and
consented.
Mr Ndugai said he had already directed the Parliamentary
Constitutional and Legal Affairs Commit tee to immediately start working on one
of the bills immediately; the two committees would also start working on the
other bills from yesterday, hopefully bringing them safely to harbour this
Sunday – and invited other MPs to join these committees to come, listen, learn
and gain knowledge from their deliberations.
“The committee will start working on the bills from today
till Sunday … debating and (hopefully) endorse the bills between Monday and
Wednesday,” the Speaker explained.
However, the proposal to extend parliamentary sessions was
challenged by Kibamba MP (Chadema), Mr John Mnyika, who said it was difficult
for the MPs to discuss and endorse three bills within such a short time,
alleging that the current discussion on bad mining contracts were also a result
of endorsing bills under ‘certificates of urgency.’
“In 1997, this House endorsed mining laws on a Certificate
of Urgency which have brought us several challenges … including the ongoing
mineral concentrates saga. “In 2005, this House also endorsed three bills on
Certificate of Urgency … the bills dealt with natural gas and revenues. As a
people’s representative, I request that this proposal be debated in this
House,” he said.
However, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s
Office (Policy, Parliamentary Affairs, Labour, Employment, Youth and the Disabled),
Ms Jenista Mhagama, countered Mr Mnyika’s statement, arguing that the
government had followed all the procedures before bringing the bill to
Parliament.
Article source: Daily News TZ