Islamabad, Oct 20 (PTI) Pakistan's Parliament on Thursday amended rules to make the prior approval of the Speaker mandatory before arresting any lawmaker.

The National Assembly (NA), the lower house of the bicameral Parliament, approved amendments to the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business 2007.

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The NA shared its agenda on Twitter, saying that Rule 103, which previously required the authorities to immediately inform the Speaker in case of a lawmaker's arrest, was 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,” it said.

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Furthermore, Rule 106, which previously stated that no member of national assembly (MNA) would be arrested from the Assembly's precinct without the Speaker's approval, was proposed to be substituted by: “No member shall be arrested within the precincts of the Assembly.”

Dawn reported that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi presented the amendment resolutions in the house.

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.

Subsequently, all three amendments were approved by the National Assembly, according to Dawn.

The amendments come amid arrests of opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmakers in separate cases of prohibited funding and a controversial tweet.

Similarly, several PML-N lawmakers were arrested when the PTI was in power.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)