•President Edgar  Lungu (right) escorts the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Portal Welby, Archbishop of  Canterbury and Reverend Albert Chama (left) Archbishop of Central Africa after he held talks with the clergymen at State House yesterday.
Picture by EDDIE MWANALEZA/STATE HOUSE.

By CHILA NAMAIKO –
PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has said the Patriotic Front (PF) is on course to ending political violence and implementing the resolutions of the recent indaba organised by the Church.
Meanwhile, the Head of State yesterday pardoned 525 prisoners in the exercise of his prerogative of mercy.
Mr Lungu assured of peaceful elections, adding that PF was on course in implementing resolutions from the indaba which he and other political leaders agreed upon.
He has since challenged other opposition political leaders to denounce violence and ensure that the resolutions were implemented.
“For us, we are very committed to seeing peaceful elections and we are already on course to ending political violence,” he said.
He was speaking at State House yesterday when visiting Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Archbishop of Central Africa Albert Chama called on him.
Mr Lungu said the need to end violence should not only be his duty as he has been talking to PF members who were adhering to his advice and challenged other political leaders to lead by example.
He reiterated his call to the Church to use its influence to help denounce political violence and pray for national peace and unity.
Mr Lungu commended the Anglican Church for its support to Government citing key areas such as health and education aimed at uplifting the lives of the people of Zambia.
Dr Welby praised President Lungu for working hard to change the livelihood of Zambians and the efforts to ensure peace and unity continue to prevail ahead of the elections.
He was happy that Mr Lungu was among political party leaders who attended the indaba to explore more ways of ending violence.
“Zambia is a good country, we are happy to see the rains, but we are aware of low water levels in Kariba Dam,” he said.
The Church, he said, would pray for Zambia to overcome current economic and global challenges emanating from high oil prices and low copper prices on the international market.
And President Lungu has pardoned 525 prisoners under his prerogative of mercy provisions of Article 59 (d) of the Constitution of Zambia.
His Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda told journalists at State House yesterday that President Lungu had signed a presidential warrant to pardon the prisoners.
“So he (Mr Lungu) has signed the warrant to release 525 prisoners with immediate effect and some of these prisoners are facing sentences while others are serving long sentences,” he said.
The pardon followed an exhibition of good behaviour by selected prisoners and the move would help to decongest the prisons.
He said Mr Lungu was of the view that the Prison Service should move swiftly to becoming more of a correctional service than being a punitive institution.
In February this year, Mr Lungu signed another warrant and pardoned 500 prisoners serving life imprisonment, on death row and other sentences and a large number of them were female convicts.
Mr Chanda said the President was also concerned about congestion in the prisons and was encouraging construction of modern facilities through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative.