• Any premises in Islamabad can now be sub-jail for detained lawmaker
• No member can be picked up from assembly

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Thursday made crucial changes to its rules making it mandatory for the authorities concerned to seek prior permission from the speaker to arrest a member of the house, besides empowering him to declare any premises in Islamabad as sub-jail for the detained lawmaker.

Through another amendment, the house barred the authorities from arresting a member within the precincts of the National Assembly.

The lower house of parliament, however, abolished the discretionary powers of the speaker or the chairpersons of committees to issue production order for an arrested lawmaker, thus allowing the arrested member to attend every sitting of the house or the committee without any hurdle.

The amendments, presented by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Murtaza Javed Abbasi, were approved by the lawmakers within minutes and at a time when the house was clearly lacking quorum. For quorum, the house requires the presence of 86 members (one-fourth of its strength of 342).

The members were only supposed to approve the amendments to rules about the prior permission of speaker before the arrest and preventing the authorities from picking up a lawmaker from the premises of the Parliament House as these were listed in the agenda. However, it was on the proposal of Defence Minister Khawaja Asif that they also approved the other two amendments, making it mandatory for the speaker to issue production orders for the arrested members and giving him the power to declare Parliament Lodges — the official residence of the members — or any other place in Islamabad as sub-jail to allow them to stay in the capital during the whole sitting.

Mr Abbasi said he supported the proposals made by the defence minister and asked Deputy Speaker Zahid Akram Durrani to defer the matter for another day to allow him to incorporate the new changes, but Mr Durrani said these were very good suggestions and they should approve them immediately.

The amendments have been made in Rules 103, 106 and 108 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly 2007.

The new Rule 103 reads: “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.”

Previously, the authorities were only required to intimate the speaker about the arrest and the place of detention.

Similarly, the new Rule 106 reads: “No member shall be arrested within the precincts of the Assembly.” Previously, the authorities had the powers to pick-up any member from the premises of the assembly, but with the permission of the speaker.

Earlier, the speaker or the chairperson of a committee under Rule 108 had discretionary powers to issue production order of a detained MNA. The defence minister’s proposal that the word “may” should be substituted with “shall” and the words “if he considers his presence necessary” should be omitted from Rule 108 — which deals with the issuance of production orders — was immediately accepted by the house. Some of the lawmakers, including the deputy speaker, praised the minister for his suggestions.

“The speaker or chairman of a committee may summon a member in custody on the charge of a non-bailable offence to attend a sitting or sittings of the Assembly or meeting of a committee of which he is a member, if he considers his presence necessary,” read the old Rule 108.

While making the suggestions, the defence minister told the house that police used to bring him and another PML-N leader Khwaja Saad Rafique from Lahore for the sittings and took them back soon after the adjournment of the sitting only to bring them the next day again for the sitting.

Mr Asif was of the view that instead of the administration or the police, the speaker should have the powers to determine the place of detention and ensure that the arrested members stay in the capital city till completion of the entire session.

Similarly, the minister recalled that on many occasions they had seen the speakers refusing to issue the production orders under the influence of their party heads or parliamentary leaders.

When Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali, while supporting the amendments, called for issuing the production orders for the MNA from Waziristan Ali Wazir, the deputy speaker said now there would be no need for him to issue the orders after approval of the amendments to the rules.

Meanwhile, Minister for National Food Security Tariq Bashir Cheema informed the assembly that wheat seeds would be provided to the district administrations of Sindh and Balochistan in the first fortnight of November for their onward distribution to farmers in the flood-hit areas.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2022