Are Tarrar’s claims of PTI members being arrested from outside parliament wrong?

Information Minister Attaullah Tarrrar yesterday (September 11) spoke on the floor of the house in the National Assembly and claimed that the law was not violated when PTI MNAs were arrested on Monday night. 

The minister claimed that video evidence available with the office of the speaker of the National Assembly shows no violation of law, as PTI members of the parliament were arrested outside the parliament’s premises.

“Some videos have come to our notice, and there was evidence proving that no one was arrested from inside the House,” he said, adding that evidence inside the speaker’s office shows that people were arrested from outside the parliament, near a checkpost. 

Tarrar kept on stressing that these videos should be examined; either they (the opposition) deny the evidence, or if it turns out to be true, then the government can talk to them about it. 

On the contrary, PTI leader Barrister Gohar spoke to the house and asserted that he and other party members were inside the parliament and were dragged out by “masked men” who had the keys to their rooms. The videos, he argued, were made outside the parliament.

“The two of us who were arrested from outside the parliament were actually not arrested outside the parliament. The time I sat in that car, there were others present with the walkie talkies and they were talking about who was taken where. They took me to the gate,” he said, implying that he was taken into custody from inside. 

 PTI has declared the arrests illegal and barbaric.

We asked renowned journalist Azaz Syed if claims MNAs being arrested from inside the parliament are correct or not. He said, “Some of the leaders were arrested from outside the parliament but two of them, according to my sources, were arrested from inside, one being Nasim Ali Shah.” 

Commenting on legality, Azaz replied, “It is not illegal, but a sheer contradiction to traditions as the police entering the premises of the parliament is unheard of and not appreciated at all.”

Lawyer and activist Jibran Nasir posted a detailed note elaborating upon the law rule 106 of the 2007 Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the assembly stating that “No member shall be arrested from within the precincts of the Assembly without the permission of the Speaker.” 

He went on to shed light on the precincts of the National Assembly, “which includes the Chamber, lobbies, the galleries, offices attached to the Parliament and parking lots, offices which are in use of the Assembly, the places which are part of the Parliament building and such other places as the Speaker may from time to time specify.”

Nasir opined that all the arrests made today at the parliament are illegal unless the speaker had expressly granted permission for the same.

Lawyer and analyst Reema Omer also posted about Rule 106 and highlighted  Rule 103, which delineates that “when a member is arrested, authorities shall immediately inform the speaker indicating reasons for arrest plus place of detention.”

Notably, footage of PTI leader Zubair Khan being dragged by the police from inside the parliament made waves all across the internet, debunking Tarar’s claim that no one was arrested from inside the parliament. 

Dawn claims that police had been deployed outside Parliament House for hours before unmarked vehicles arrived on the scene. 

Verifying the claims made by netizens, Dawn also confirmed that the electricity of the parliament building was disconnected during the raid.

“Subsequently, MNAs Zain Qureshi, Amir Dogar, Sheikh Waqqas Akram, and Naseem Ali Shah along with others were brought out from Parliament House and handed over to police for legal action,” Dawn reports.  

Three of the four vehicles were reported to have left the premises, and the MNAs were bundled into different cars.

After this episode, the power supply was restored, and the ‘under custody’ MNAs were brought out of the building through the Cabinet Division gate, where they were ‘rearrested’ by the police, according to Dawn’s report.

Videos of Zain Qureshi talking to the media inside the court he was presented in also emerged in which he, contrary to Tarrar’s claim, said that he, being a “sitting member” of the parliament, was arrested by the police.