Production orders of lawmakers: Rules of procedure, conduct of business to be amended

Ministry of Law and Justice has decided to amend the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in National Assembly (NA) pertaining to the issuance of the production orders of members of the lower house, said the sources. It is expected that the amendment draft will be prepared in the next few weeks. The changes in the rules will restrict parliamentarians, involved in corruption cases, from getting production orders. The amendments will be made in the Rule 108 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the NA, 2007, and Section 84 of the Rules of Procedure of the Senate.
The matter of the issuance of production order started when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) asked NA Speaker Asad Qaiser to issue production orders of PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, PML-N leaders Khawaja Saad Rafique, ex-PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Hamza Shahbaz. The opposition parties' leaders, mainly of PML-N and PPP, are either in National Accountability Bureau (NAB) custody or in jail because of the corruption cases.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on July 2 after the cabinet meeting had recommended the amendments. He stated that the parliamentarians against whom the cases are pending have been wrongly using the production orders.
According to the Rule 108 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the NA, 2007; 1) 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.
2) On a production order, signed by the Secretary or by any other officer authorized in this behalf and addressed to the government of the province where the member is held in custody or to the authority concerned, the provincial government or such authority shall cause the member in custody to be produced before the sergeant-at-arms, who shall, after the conclusion of the sitting or the meeting, deliver the member into the custody of the provincial government or other authority concerned.