Article prohibiting court summons that obstruct MPs

The Supreme Court has annulled the article in the Parliament Privileges and Powers Act, which states that MPs cannot be summoned to court or any institution if it obstructs them from attending parliament sittings or parliament committee meetings.

All seven judges of the Supreme Court were in favour of the ruling issued today whereby several articles of the Parliament Privileges and Powers were annulled, in relation to a case filed by then Attorney General Azima Shakoor requesting to annul several articles of this Act.

Azima Shakoor argued that Articles 11 (a), 16, and 18 (b) of the Parliament Privileges and Powers Act contradict the Constitution, and asked the Supreme Court to annul these articles.

Article 11 (a) states that MPs cannot be summoned to court or any institution if it obstructs them from attending parliament sittings or parliament committee meetings.

Article 16 states that MPs should be allowed to attend parliament sittings and committee meetings even if they are given a sentence not exceeding one year.

Article 18 (b) is regarding revealing information sources, and contradicts Article 28 of the Constitution.