THE government has allayed fears that have engulfed some Tanzanians that it intends to clandestinely incorporate the Kadhi Court fragment in the new constitution.

Addressing a well-attended press conference in his office in Dar es Salaam, the Prime Minister, Mr Mizengo Pinda, said that there was no such plan and those circulating such news had their own ulterior motives.

He instead, noted that the government is seeing the possibilities of having down set of rules that would enable the state to recognise and uphold some of the decisions reached by the court.

The premier noted that there is no any section in the Proposed Constitution, which speaks about the court, but instead there are sections trying to propose how some decision reached by various groups can be upheld.

He attributed the fallacy with little knowledge the community has over the proposed document.

The premier thus advised Tanzanians to ensure that they thoroughly read the whole Proposed Constitution instead of depending on what they were being told by other people.

“We have come to learn that most Tanzanians are being misled, either deliberately or undeliberately. We have to read the document carefully and understand its content,” he stressed.

The premier was giving the government’s stand over the issue ahead of the Parliament session meeting penciled to kick off next Tuesday, whereby among other things, the Kadhi Court Bill is expected to be debated and approved by the House.

 Mr Pinda noted that the government and religious leaders, both Muslim and Christian, have severally met and discussed the matter intensively.

Mr Pinda explained that the issue of Kadhi Court has been resurfacing since independence as the government has been looking into prudent ways to handle the matter.

He said that back then, Muslims in the country had pushed the government to establish the court and handle it as it does to other court divisions, including paying its workers.

The premier noted that the government had categorically refused to form the court but, as an alternative, allowed the Muslim community to establish it.

“The Kadhi Court has already been established by Muslims and it is operational since 2012. But it is run by Muslims themselves. As a government we now need to see how to recognise all the decisions reached by these courts,” he observed.

He noted that according to the statistics he has, between 2,000 and 3,000 family-related cases have been handled by Kadhi courts since their inception.

Mr Pinda assured the general public that the court was only mandated to handle family-related issues, including marriages, divorces and inheritances amongst the Muslim community.

“These courts do not handle criminal issues -- Tanzanians must understand this. They don’t have to fear its presence,” he reassured.

The premier called for unity and cooperation among Tanzanians despite their religious beliefs, saying what had united Tanzanians was much more magnanimous than what can divide them.

Mr Pinda also said that the government has so far distributed about 1,341,300 copies of the Proposed Constitution to all regions both in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar.

The government had earlier announced that it would print two million copies of the document and distribute them all over the country.

Mr Pinda noted that the remaining copies will be distributed to the government ministries, institutions, departments, higher learning institutions and to all private foundations including civil society organisations (CSOs)