Ni kufuru kwa Watanzania kuujadili Muungano kama vile ilivyo kufuru kumjadili Mungu na kuuliza maswali kuhusu Muumba!!! Hawa watu ni vichekesho kweli kweli!!! Wanataka kufukia kila kitu na kupretend kama mambo ni shwari kumbe yanafukuta chini kwa chini!!!
Sitta also bans debate on Zanzibar status
2008-07-25 10:19:32
By Bilal Abdul-Aziz, Dodoma
National Assembly Speaker Samwel Sitta issued a directive here yesterday effectively barring Members of Parliament from any further discussion on whether Zanzibar is legally a state.
Sitta, whose intervention came as MPs shot direct questions at Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda under a recently introduced weekly procedure, invoked Rule 53 (8) of the House Standing Orders to cut off the questions and end the session.
``Rule 53 (8) of the House Standing Orders disallows any MP from reverting to any issue that has already been discussed and decided upon? Therefore, my ruling is that we shall not discuss this issue any further,`` he declared.
The Speaker explained that the Prime Minister elaborated comprehensively enough on the issue inside the House last week, including recommending that the Union and Zanzibar attorney generals pursue it jointly to its logical conclusion.
``The issue has already been handed over to the two attorney generals?and when the Prime Minister made the announcement to that effect last week, honourable MPs clapped as a sign that they concurred with him,`` he said.
He stood by his ruling amid a wave of questions on what the Union Constitution said about the status of the Isles from the opposition camp, led by Zanzibar legislators Mohamed Habib Mnyaa (Mkanyageni - CUF) and Dr Ali Tarab Ali (Konde - CUF) .
Mnyaa had demanded explanation from the Prime Minister on whether it was the Articles of Union that formed the United Republic of Tanzania or the Union Constitution that reigned supreme.
``I think Hon Mnyaa is not wishing me any good?I didn?t want to comment on this issue at length?I have learned from the media that there was a demo planned against me in Zanzibar,`` noted Pinda, before responding.
He then said the matter had already been left in the hands of the two attorney generals in the hope that they would make a thorough study of the Constitution and see where there were problems and how best to deal with them.
He added that he believed time had come for the ruling CCM to take up the matter and issue a conclusive statement on it ``after which I think we will be in a position to get a definitive answer``.
But the Konde MP found the response unsatisfactory and stood up to throw a supplementary question opposing the idea of leaving the matter in the hands of the two attorney generals and the ruling party.
``Since the Union belongs to all Tanzanians, the issue is not the responsibility of only the government but of all the people,`` argued the legislator, his favourite option being the initiation of a public dialogue ?so that the people can decide``.
It was at that juncture that Speaker Sitta intervened, issuing the ``stop order``, just as Zanzibar House of Representatives Speaker Pandu Ameir Kificho did only days ago..
Responding to MPs` questions in the National Assembly last week, the Prime Minister was emphatic that there was no way Zanzibar could become a sovereign state within another sovereign state (the United Republic of Tanzania) because doing that would automatically break the April 26, 1964 Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
Pinda, a lawyer, explained that Zanzibar was not a sovereign state because it lost the status when it became part of a new sovereign state known as the United Republic of Tanzania.
He said he saw no way during his prime ministerial tenure in which he would be party to a political experience or process that would lead to the collapse of ``the precious and exemplary Union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar``.
SOURCE: Guardian