Parliament Lodges to be sub-jail for arrested PTI lawmakers

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq  approving the request of arrested PTI lawmakers has declared Parliament Lodges as sub-jail.

A formal notification to this effect has been issued.

The decision was announced after a series of emergency meetings held in the chamber of Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, which included key figures such as Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, and PPP leader Syed Naveed Qamar.

The meeting, which aimed to address the situation of PTI members currently in custody, concluded with the agreement to use Parliament Lodges for the detention of these members.

Interior Minister Naqvi subsequently visited the speaker’s chamber to inform Speaker Ayaz Sadiq about the decision. All arrested PTI members were also present in the speaker’s chamber at that time. The production orders for the detained PTI members will remain valid for the upcoming 16th session of the National Assembly.

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Speaker Ayaz Sadiq approved the decision to use the Parliament Lodges as sub-jail for the PTI MNAs, after which all the arrested PTI members were made to sign relevant forms. The PTI members are likely to be transferred to Parliament Lodges today.

Earlier the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday declared the eight-day remand of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members of the National Assembly as null and void. 

The development comes after the police on September 9 arrested a number of PTI leaders in several cases after the party’s powershow in Islamabad last week. 

The cases include the reported attack on police at Chongi No 26 — which turned into a battleground as PTI workers and law enforcement agencies (LEAs) clashed after the formers deviated from routes leading to Sangjani, venue of the party’s public gathering.