Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri will today appear before the Parliamentary Thematic Committee on Human Rights to give oral evidence on what police are doing to stop political violence rocking the country.
It will be a second appearance before a parliamentary committee for Chihuri amid concerns that police were partisan when handling political clashes.
In March, he was summoned by the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs on the same issue.
The Human Rights Thematic Committee, chaired by Zaka Senator Misheck Marava, is expected to ask Chihuri to expain why police had not taken action against suspected Zanu PF activists who were accused of disrupting an MDC-T rally in Chitungwiza three weeks ago.
Marava confirmed that Chihuri had been summoned and said if he failed to turn up, a representative would be expected to give evidence on his behalf.
“The committee would like to know police action on cases of recent political violence,” Marava said.
“We also want clarification on allegations that the police were partisan whenever executing their duties, as well as other issues related to political violence.”
The MDC-T has also alleged that instead of arresting Zanu PF perpetrators of violence, police targeted victims.
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Police have also failed to bring to book suspected Zanu PF supporters who invaded Parliament in July and assaulted MPs and journalists during a public hearing into the Human Rights Bill.
House of Assembly Speaker Lovemore Moyo’s demand that police act on the incident has so far yielded no results even after pictures of the suspects were splashed in national newspapers.
During his March appearance, Chihuri blamed the MDC-T for political violence claiming that the party was responsible for most of the recorded incidents.
He also complained that representatives of non-governmental organisations were “distracting and interjecting” President Robert and his delegations at international meetings.
