ONE of the key roles of Parliament, according to the Constitution of Zimbabwe, is that of making laws for the peace, order and good of the country.

But increasingly, the Parliament of Zimbabwe has been under a barrage of criticism since 2000 for passing laws seen as encouraging the polarisation of society.

And as the curtain comes down on 2009, the constitutional requirement that places the onerous responsibility on Parliament to make laws for the good governance of the country is proving to be a tall order as evidenced by the slow pace of constitutional reform.

The role that the august House had been envisaged to play in the new political dispensation in which President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara agreed to share power following last year's inconclusive elections, appear to have been relegated to the margins of the government's agenda because of the tug-of-war for power pitting ZANU-PF on one hand and the mainstream Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) on the other.

The country's 10-month old inclusive government was expected to take remedial action against a raft of repressive legislation that were rushed through Parliament between 2000 and 2005, but no such action has been taken. All there is are empty promises.

The list of laws to be repealed or amended includes the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the Citizenship Amendment Act, the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and the General Laws Amendment Act.

The Interception of Communications Act, Statutory Instrument 37 of 2004, whose first victim was businessman James Makamba, as well as the Reconstruction of State-Indebted Insolvent Companies Act, that was used to seize Mutumwa Mawere's business empire, are also some of the restrictive laws in the country's statutes up for deliberation in the august House.

While opening the second session of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe on October 6, President Mugabe highlighted a string of other Bills to be tabled in the bicameral Parliament.

His list included the National Information Communication Technology Bill; the Human Rights Commission Bill, and amendments to the Income Tax Act, National Incomes and Pricing Commission Act, Railways Act, the Education Act, among others.

The President mentioned a number of Bills that were never tabled during the last session as promised including the Energy Laws Amendment Bill; the Small and Medium Enterprise Bill; the Zimbabwe Construction Industry Council Bill and the Older Persons Bill.

Most of the Bills that President Mugabe said would be brought before Parliament while opening the first session of the Seventh Parliament on August 26 last year were not brought before the House.

Ever since the formation of the shaky inclusive government in February, only one law, the Zimbabwe National Security Council Act, assented to by President Mugabe on March 4 this year, has been passed.

The passage of new laws has been stalled by the continuous political bickering over the so-called outstanding issues between ZANU-PF and the MDC formations at the expense of real progress to pull Zimbabwe out of decade of economic challenges.

Problems have since emerged as the National Security Council continues to fail to meet regularly as required by the law owing to an assortment of reasons that have heightened tensions in the inclusive government.

As a result of suspicions between the parties in the government of national unity, it is doubtful that any new law would be promulgated before the end of the year. This is a tragedy for the nation that desperately needs to reform its laws in order to reverse the negative perceptions dogging it in the international community.

There are a lot of suspicions among the political parties distracting legislators from doing the right thing.

At the moment, there are only three Bills currently in the House of Assembly; the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill, the Audit Office Bill and the Financial Management Bill, all sponsored by Finance Minister, Tendai Biti.

The Bills are likely to be downplayed in the coming weeks as a result of impending debate over the national budget expected to be presented this month.

In terms of Section 103 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, a budget has to be approved within 30 days before the end of the year or 30 days within a new year.

This week ZANU-PF chief whip, Joram Gumbo, indicated that the party's legislators had taken the position to block the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill on grounds that it was partisan as the political fight between ZANU-PF and the MDC-T spills into Parliament.

And as a way out of that paralysis, MDC-T Mutare legislator, Innocent Gonese, has come up with a Private Member's Bill that is aimed at amending POSA to force the police to relinquish some of their powers.

In a report to the African Commission on Human and People's Rights, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum and the Non-governmental Organisations Forum said despite the formation of the inclusive government, those in authority are now increasingly relying on restrictive legislation to deal with dissenting voices -- a possible reason for the reluctance to do away with the said laws.

"Following the completion of the first year after the signing of the GPA (Global Political Agreement) in Zimbabwe, political discrimination, intimidation and victimisation remain a major concern . . . The forum is concerned that the infrastructure of violence remains intact and nothing is being done to reform State institutions. We also continue to witness the use of repressive legislation to curtail civil liberties," said the Forum.

For as long as the ongoing stalemate between parties in the government continues over so-called outstanding issues, policy issues would remain paralysed.