LAZ not absolute conscience of legal fraternity
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 14:00:29 +0000
By CHIKUMBI KATEBE
THE Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) ‘‘is not the absolute brain, mouth and conscience’’ of the legal fraternity in Zambia to engage in tactics of silencing its members who criticise decisions made by its leadership, says PF information team member Sunday Chanda.
Mr Chanda said lawyers carry independent minds and have the freedom to express their dissatisfaction about LAZ activities which have the potential to erode public confidence and integrity of its membership.
He said LAZ parades itself as the promoter of good governance and democratic tendencies but was presently working at silencing those questioning its dictates of the cartel unto the Association.
He explained that the Association was not immunised to criticism even by its own members who find their collaborating with the cartel questionable.
“Eastern Province Minister Makeni Zulu is spot as he does not need the LAZ to express his annoyance or displeasure regarding the ridiculous decisions being made by an Association he belongs to and contributes to.
“Clearly, there are decisions embraced by LAZ which are made by external forces to push a particular agenda. There must be a remnant of lawyers in this country who must sense a call of duty to redeem the soul of LAZ from the jaws of the notorious cartel,” he said.
He said if indeed lawyers were to allow to be silenced into submission, they would be doing a great disservice to themselves as a noble profession and they would have subjugated the heavy responsibilities to the whims of a group bent on usurping power from a government of the people, for the people and by the people.
He charged that LAZ members must continue their vigilance and hold their Association leadership to task whenever they sensed abnormalities in the management of the legal fraternity, such as the burdens of present day events and the bearing thereof upon the profession.
“The legal fraternity should not succumb to the current LAZ executive’s misrepresentation.
“The LAZ is hijacked and pursuing a well-orchestrated agenda – the cartel’s agenda which has simply mutated from what it used to appear before the 2016 Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections.
“Lawyers of good conscience are, therefore, urged to give this matter thoughtful consideration,” he said.
He has accused LAZ of losing its intended purpose of promoting good governance that instead have engaged in undemocratic tendencies of gagging and issuing threats to its members seeming to be independent of the external force controlling its management.
He said LAZ could not condemn dictatorship in one breath while embracing it in its administration, that “it was never the intention of Parliament that LAZ members should be silenced with misplaced disciplinary hearings.
Mr Chanda said never was it the intention of the legislature that LAZ must be watched by society as it transformed itself into a monster at the whims and dictates of the cartel.
