No bar to arrest Latif: Speaker

Staff Reporter :
Differences of opinion have been expressed by the Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad and the State Minister for Home over the arrest of removed Awami League leader Abdul Latif Siddiqui, who retuned home on Sunday night with several arrest warrants on him.
Siddiqui, who has also been sacked from the Ministry of Post, Telecommunication and Information Ministry for making derogatory comments on Tabligh and Hajj at a programme in New York in September, is now facing a total of 30 cases filed against him in 18 districts, including Dhaka. Several arrest warrants have been issued in those cases.
There is no legal bar in arresting former minister and sitting MP Abdul Latif Siddiqui, said Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury while replying to reporters at her office in the parliament on Monday afternoon.
She said: “There is no legal obligation to arrest any lawmaker of the House from anywhere except the parliament area.
“In this case, there is no need for prior permission of the speaker of the parliament,” she said.
As per the parliament proceedings, members of the law enforcing agencies must take permission from the Speaker while arresting a member of parliament who remains present in the Parliament lobby, chamber and gallery. But it is not necessary to take permission from the Speaker to arrest a sitting MP when he or she is out of the parliament areas.
Earlier in the morning, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal had said the law enforcers cannot arrest any lawmaker without the permission of the speaker of the parliament. He said that the arrest of Latif Siddiqui was not possible due to some legal complications.
“Prior to his arrest, we need permission from the Speaker as he (Siddiqui) is still a member of parliament,” Kamal said while talking to journalists at his Secretariat office.
He added: The law-enforcing agencies cannot arrest Latif Siddiqui without the permission of the Speaker as the session of parliament is underway and he is still a setting member of it.
When contacted, renowned lawyer Dr Shahdeen Malik told The New Nation that in the eye of law, Latif Siddiqui had committed a ‘minor offense’. He can obtain bail as there is no legal barrier in getting bail from the court in such a crime.  
He said that police can take action against him only after receiving arrest warrant from courts. “When a court sends any arrest warrant to the police station where the accused live, then that particular police station will act accordingly.”
In my opinion, the concerned police station where he is now staying has not received any court’s arrest warrant. So, they could not take any action against him, Malik said.