PAC changes tune on meeting APM

The Public Affairs Committee (PAC) says it will not meet President Peter Mutharika on April 27 as proposed by the State House saying the set date did not go in line with its plans.

In an interview on Wednesday, PAC executive director, Robert Phiri, said it is no longer necessary to meet the president because the statement PAC to present to Mutharika is already in the public domain.   

“We wanted to meet the president last week Thursday but they gave us until April 27. Since we could not wait that long, we delivered what we wanted to present to the president through the media, realising that the State House has for a long period of time been shifting the dates for us to meet the president and engage in a dialogue regarding issues affecting the country,” he said. 

Giving its assessment to the media last week, PAC rated poorly Mutharika’s administration saying it has failed to govern the country and that Mutharika’s administration lacks vision. 

PAC has on several occasions accused government of lacking seriousness to engage in discussion with the committee on issues affecting the country. 

The last meeting between PAC and President Mutharika took place in April last year and it ended in a deadlock. 

Commenting on the matter, presidential spokesperson, Mgeme Kalilani, said on its part the State House gave the date and it is up to PAC to decide whether it still wants to meet the president or not. 

“We gave them a date and they decided to go ahead and release to the public the information they wanted to present to the president. We cannot force them to come if they do not want. If they still want to meet the president the door is still open,” he said.

Political analyst Mustafa Hussein is quoted in the media as saying that dialogue was important and called for seriousness from both parties.