It?s hard for detained MPs to get production orders in NA

[ahlam1399]

ISLAMABAD: Unlike the detained members of the National Assembly (MNAs), an in prison senator of the opposition gets without even a minor hassle or uproar his production order every time the Upper House of Parliament starts its new session.There has always been intense tussle between the government and the opposition over the production of the incarcerated MNAs of the opposition in the National Assembly. In some cases, Speaker Asad Qaisar had to delay issuance of production orders for some arrested opposition MNAs, including Khawaja Saad Rafique, intensifying government-opposition confrontation. The government has always been uncomfortable with the speaker’s decision to allow the incarcerated opposition MNAs to attend the House proceedings. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has also been uneasy with the issuance of production orders and has been complaining that its investigators do not get sufficient time to question the accused lawmakers during the remand period.At present, there is only one senator and he is Kamran Michael of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), who is held by NAB on different charges. Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has been issuing his production order every time the new session begins. However, the issuance of this order and Kamran Michael’s presence in the Senate sittings has largely gone unnoticed, and the ruling coalition too has not resisted the senator’s turnout in the sessions. “Over the past three and a half months, the chairman has been issuing, without any reservations, the production order for Kamran Michael, who meets me every time he is in the House,” leader of the opposition in the Upper House and veteran PML-N leader Raja Zafarul Haq told The News when contacted to inquire whether the detained MP was being allowed to attend the session.He said that the PML-N has not been confronted with any problem as far as Kamran Michael’s attendance in the House was concerned since his arrest.The NAB on February 8 this year apprehended Kamran Michael, who is a former federal minister for ports and shipping (2013-2016) and has also held several other cabinet portfolios across different tenures, over allegations of misuse of authority and pocketing over Rs1 billion in bribes. He was accused of illegally allotting three commercial and residential apartment plots in prime locations of KPT Cooperative Housing Society (Mai Kolachi area) in Karachi to his favourites, against which he allegedly received a huge sum.NAB claimed that the former federal minister abused his authority by influencing the officials to carry out his illegal orders of making allotments in 2013. It was claimed that the evidence against the accused was unearthed during investigation into a corruption reference filed in a separate probe involving 16 other plots.On February 12, an accountability court of Karachi rejected the NAB request for physical remand of the senator and sent him to jail on judicial remand. A day earlier, the NAB officials had interrogated him about a man named Imran Shah, who had given a statement against him.Sanjrani has been issuing the production order for Kamran Michael under rule 84 of the Rules of Procedure & Conduct of Business in the Senate, which says the chairman or chairman of a committee may summon a member in custody on the charge of any offence or under any law relating to preventive detention to attend a sitting or sittings of the Senate or meeting of a committee of which he is a member if he considers his presence necessary. On a production order, signed by the secretary or by any other officer authorised by the chairman in this behalf, addressed to the Federal Government or, as the case may be, the provincial government where the member is held in custody, or to the authority having or holding custody of the member, the federal government or the provincial government or such other 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 federal government or the provincial government or other authority, as the case may be.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/z70P7iWfyvo

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