The National Assembly on Thursday approved amendments to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007, which require authorities to seek the NA speaker’s approval prior to arresting a lawmaker.
According to the amendments, the Speaker’s consent must be obtained before any member is detained or arrested on a criminal charge, and no member may be detained or arrested inside the Assembly’s precincts.
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Murtaza Javed Abbasi, the minister for parliamentary affairs, proposed the amendment, which sought to replace rule 103 of the rules of procedure.
“When a member has to be arrested on a criminal charge or for a criminal offence or has to be detained under an executive order, the committing judge, magistrate or executive authority, as the case may be, shall immediately seek approval of the Speaker indicating the reasons for the arrest or detention, as the case may be, and after such arrest, detention or when a member is sentenced to imprisonment by a court of law, the committing judge, magistrate or executive authority, as the case may be shall intimate the place of detention or imprisonment of the member in the appropriate form set out in the Fourth Schedule.”
Furthermore, Rule 106, which previously stated that no MNA would be arrested from the Assembly’s precinct without the speaker’s approval, was proposed to be substituted by:
“No member shall be arrested within the precincts of the Assembly.”
PML-N’s Murtaza Javed Abbasi presented the amendment resolutions in the house today in a session presided over by Deputy Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif proposed that the amendment should also make it mandatory for the speaker or chairman of a committee to issue a production order for a lawmaker who was detained or arrested.
Subsequently, all three amendments were approved by the National Assembly.
