The Jatiya Sangsad speaker, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, on Monday said there was no need of the speaker’s prior permission to arrest any member of parliament.
In a brief talk with reporters at her office in the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, Shirin said consent of the speaker was needed if the arrest was carried carried out inside the assembly or in its vicinity.
She said anybody could be arrested if there is legal ground against him/her. After the arrest, police should inform the speaker as per Rules of Procedure, she said.
Earlier on the day, the state minister for home, Asaduzzman Khan, told reporters that arresting Latif require consent of the speaker since the assembly was in session.
The expelled Awami League leader and cabinet member, Abdul Latif Siddique, on Sunday evening returned to Dhaka on an Air India flight two months after staying in different countries since September when some of his remarks had hurt religious sentiment of Muslims prompting the courts to issue warrants for his arrest for ignoring summons in over two dozen cases.
Latif Siddiqui, a former policymaker of AL, is now wanted by more than a dozen courts across the country as he did not respond to the court summons for making derogatory remarks on Allah, his Prophet (SM), hajj and Tabligh. The airport officials said that the elderly lawmaker from Tangail arrived in Dhaka from Kolkata at about 8:21pm. After staying at the VIP lounge for about an hour after completing immigration formalities, he left the airport through the domestic terminal at about 9:30pm as media cars gathered outside the VIP terminal. He was escorted by law enforcers in plain clothes and intelligence personnel. His whereabouts is unknown till filling this report on Monday evening.
Source: Newage
