The new arrangement comes barely three days after the newly elected Speaker Henry Chimunthu Banda opened debate on the state-of-the-nation address by President Bingu wa Mutharika.
Chimunthu Banda made the announcement in the House on Friday after the first meeting of the Business Committee earlier in the day.
The committee met to strategize on how business should be conducted in the House, infested with government-parliamentarians, most of whom are new to the system.
The speaker communicated to the House that only five questions to each ministry shall be responded and then two supplementary questions related to the original questions will follow.
Members of Parliament are given three days each week for question time.
The speaker said the committee also agreed that for a particular question to be answered, the owner must be present in the House.
The owner of the question ought to be present in the House for her or his question to be tackled. And the supplementary question ought to follow logically to the original question, he said.
But Member of Parliament for Salima South, Uladi Mussa stood on a point of order to differ with the arrangement.
He said much as he was in agreement that a member has to be present for his or her question to tackled it was not a good arrangement because sometimes members stay away of the House on valid reasons.
But leader of the House, Goodall Gondwe while also agreeing with Mussa, said answering a question in the absence of the owner does not reflect its importance.
For the sake of seriousness among the members, we insist that members should be present in the House for their questions to be answered, he said.
Gondwes response also got the affirmation of Malawi Congress Party (MCP) chief whip, Joseph Njobvuyalema who said the presence of the members during question time was important because it ensures their satisfaction of the answers provided.
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