The lower house of the parliament has approved an amendment to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly thereby making the approval of the speaker of National Assembly mandatory before arresting any lawmaker.
Rule 103 required the authorities to inform the speaker immediately in case of arrest of any lawmaker. The rule has now been amended, according to which the speaker will have to be sought for approval and the reasons for lawmakers’ arrest or detention will be indicated.
The proposed amendment reads as, “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.”
Rule 106, that barred arrest of any lawmaker from assembly premises without approval of the speaker, has also been amended. It has now stated that no member of the assembly will be arrested within the precincts of the assembly.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Murtaza Javed Abbasi presented the resolution for the amendments.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that it should also be made mandatory, in the amendments, for the speaker or chairman committee to issue production orders for detained or arrested lawmaker.
