Pressure mounts on passport glitches: HRDC implores Parliament to quiz Chakwera on it
Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has asked legislators to quiz President Lazarus Chakwera on pertinent issues including passport glitches and hunger when he appears in Parliament this Wednesday.
HRDC chairperson Gift Trapence said yesterday that members of Parliament (MPs) should ask critical questions on what the government is doing to address broken systems and ensure Malawians are able to get passports and driver’s licences.
He said: “The Immigration Department’s operations have crippled everything as Malawians are failing to get their passports thereby affecting their right to travel, do business and even seek medical attention abroad.
“The Directorate of Road Traffic Safety Services is also issuing papers instead of printed traffic cards. When is government going to normalise the issuance of licences?”
Trapence further said they expect MPs to use this opportunity to ask the President tough questions on realities on the ground, especially on hunger, the prevailing dry spell, the fight against corruption and high unemployment levels.
He said lawmakers should also ask the government is going to improve the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) management to end hunger aggravated by systematic failures to manage it.
Said Trapence: “What are government’s plans of making food available next year with these erratic rains? How will government grow the economy, how will it caution Malawians who have hugely been hit hard by the high cost of living?
“How is government going to create employment among the youth? What is the status of the fight against corruption? How is government expediting developmental projects, especially the road network?”
Political pundit Ernest Thindwa has since condemned legislators on the government side for allegedly failing to utilise their proximity to the President to engage him on critical national issues.
He also took a swipe at those on the opposition side, saying they are overly obsessed with exploiting the opportunity to gain political mileage.
His counterpart, Wonderful Mkhutche said they should consult their people on what questions they should ask the President during question time.
“Malawians are looking for answers from the President and this opportunity should not be wasted by the parochial interests of the MPs,” he said.
Since he was ushered into office, Chakwera has used Parliament’s question time to face MPs on various issues affecting Malawians. But the public concern has been that lawmakers fail to pose questions on pressing matters.
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