The 2007 Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the NA were amended by the National Assembly on Thursday, requiring the speaker’s consent before an arrest can be made.
Zahid Akram Durrani, the Deputy Speaker, presided over today’s Assembly meeting.
The following rules were proposed to replace Rules 103 and 106, which previously required the concerned authorities to notify the NA speaker before detaining an MNA and prohibited arrest from the Assembly premises without authorization, respectively.
“The committing judge, magistrate or executive authority, as the case may be, shall immediately seek the Speaker’s approval of the arrest or detention of a member on a criminal charge or for a criminal offense, or to detain a member pursuant to an executive order, 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
“No member may be detained inside the Assembly’s boundaries.
The NA speaker or the chairman of a committee should be required to issue a production order for a lawmaker who has been detained or arrested, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif suggested during the session.
“We have been imprisoned, and we used to await summons from the Parliament,” he stated.
Shazia Marri of the PPP and Molana Abdul Akbar Chitrali of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan (MMAP) both indicated support for the modifications at this point.
Later, all of these revisions were adopted by the NA.