The National Assembly has approved changes to its existing rules that would require the authorities to take the approval of the NA speaker before arresting a lawmaker. The amendments also barred the arrest of MNAs from the assembly premises.

The amendments were made to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007. According to the rules before the change, the authorities were required to inform the speaker of a lawmaker’s arrest.

The agenda of the NA session, shared on Twitter from its verified Twitter handle, stated that it was propposed to make the following change to Rule 103 regarding a lawmaker’s arrest to 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.”

It also amended Rule 106, which previously stated that no MNA would be arrested from the Assembly’s precinct without the speaker’s approval.

It has been changed to: “No member shall be arrested within the precincts of the Assembly.”

Deputy Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani presided over the NA session in which Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Javed Abbasi presented the amendments.

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.

All three amendments were unanimously approved.