Government has expressed satisfaction with how Members of Parliament have deliberated during the First Meeting of the 48th Session of Parliament.

Parliament adjourned on Friday following its opening three weeks ago.

Among other things, legislators approved K511,269,522,794 billion provisional budget for the purpose of meeting expenditure necessary to carry on the services of the government in the next four financial months.

In an interview with YFM just after the adjournment, Leader of the House Kondwani Nankhumwa said lawmakers conducted their duties well as they passed the provisional budget and presenting constituency statements.

“It has been a mixed bag, but to the greater extent it has been okay, because we passed the budget, and over the three weeks we have seen several businesses been tackled, high on the agenda were ministerial statements, questions to ministers for oral replies, constituency statements and also a Bill from Minister of Finance,” he said.

Nankhumwa has however expressed discontent over the conduct of opposition legislators who boycotted the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“Members of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) insulted the President, calling him names, there was total disruption, the House went into disorder when the President took the Chair, this is uncalled because as Head of State he deserves much respect regardless of our political affiliations,” he said.

However, interim Leader of Opposition in the House Lobin Lowe has accused government of lacking seriousness as the discussions were full of constituency statements.

“As a matter of fact, compared to other sessions, we didn’t have enough business, Government was not prepared, and as you can agree with me we had just a lot constituency statements which were supposed to come on Thursday as Private Members Day but those were included on government business days meaning that government was not prepared for this sitting,” queried Lowe.

He alleged that government is using the police to silence individuals who have dissenting views and that the law enforcers are executing their obligations unprofessionally.

“We have actually observed that our police lacks some element of professionalism, by the coming in of intervention of the Military it is like a relief, because the Military is on the side of the citizens at a critical time, our police which we feel is composed of cadets, is intimidating the citizens,” Lowe said.

Parliament is expected to convene in September to discuss and approve the budget for 2019/2020 financial year.