NA approves amendment necessitating speaker's nod before arresting lawmakers

• NA okays amendments to Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in National Assembly, 2007.
• Deputy Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani presided over today's assembly session.
• The NA approved all the amendments suggested to it.

The National Assembly of Pakistan Thursday greenlighted the amendments to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the NA, 2007, following which authorities concerned would not be allowed to arrest a lawmaker without the speaker's permission.

Deputy Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani presided over today's assembly session.

According to the agenda shared on the NA’s Twitter account, Rule 103 and Rule 106 — which previously required the authorities concerned to notify the NA speaker before arresting an MNA and disallowed arrest from the Assembly premises without approval, respectively — were proposed to be substituted by the following:

• "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.”
• "No member shall be arrested within the precincts of the Assembly.”

During the session, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also proposed that it should be made mandatory for the NA speaker or a committee's chairman to issue a production order for a lawmaker who has been detained or arrested.

"We have faced imprisonments, we used to wait for the Parliament to summon us," he said.

At this, PPP MNA Shazia Marri and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan (MMAP) MNA Molana Abdul Akbar Chitrali expressed support for the amendments.

Later, the NA approved all the said amendments.