BY BLAIR MHONE
As part of its role as a legal advisory body, the Malawi Law Society (MLS) has called for a swift and lawful resolution to the investigation into Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima’s involvement in the Zuneth Sattar’s corruption scandal.
In its press statement today, the MLS said the issues surrounding the country’s vice president need to be dealt with accordingly so that the country can move forward as one unit.
This comes after President Lazarus Chakwera suspended delegated duties to the vice president after the latter was implicated by an ACB report as one of the high-profile officials who benefited from Sattar’s corrupt deals with the government.
This development, MLS says has the potential to cause a constitutional crisis if not dealt with swiftly.
The MLS statement added that knowing the state of potential guilt or innocence of the country’s Vice President can avert the impasse that can be created by a sustained state of uncertainty.
“We therefore call upon all institutions and State agents and organs if and whenever it falls within their
competence to play any role in dealing with the corruption allegations against the Vice President, to support the Anti-Corruption Bureau in its pursuit of any legal process that the Bureau may deem appropriate.
“We also call upon members of the Vice President’s political party or the general public to avoid taking actions and steps that may be perceived to seek to obstruct or impede the course of justice in the matter concerning the allegations of corruption by the Vice President seeing that under sections 13 and 30 of the Constitution, ‘all persons and peoples of Malawi’ have the right to development and to enjoyment of economic progress and that the State, in this case led by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, has a duty to take measures aimed at eradicating social injustices such as corruption,” reads the statement in part signed by MLS Chairman Patrick Mpaka.
The statement also added that the due legal process triggered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s reported findings against the Vice President and indeed against any public official must run its course efficiently and without interference.
