PESHAWAR: A new law granting Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lawmakers an array of expanded privileges, including lifetime official passports for members and their spouses, arms licenses and exemptions from arrest and preventive detention, has drawn public criticism after quietly clearing the provincial legislature more than two months ago.
Bureau Chief Bol TV Peshawar, Zahir Shah Shirazi said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly (Powers, Immunities and Privileges) Act, 2026, was passed by the assembly on April 30 and signed by Gov. Faisal Karim Kundi on May 6. It was published in the official gazette the next day, but the act and its gazette notification were kept hidden and not posted to the assembly's website.
“Even the Information Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Shafi Jan kept denying excerpts circulating on social media about the expanded privileges including the blue passport inviting criticizing for being oblivious of the controversial legislation,” Shirazi said. “Shafi Jan and PTI leader Shaukat Yousafzai will hold a press conference on Wednesday evening and they most likely would try to defend the new Act.”
خیبرپختونخوا اسمبلی کے اراکین کو بلیو پاسپورٹ جاری کرنے کی منظوری سے متعلق گردش کرنے والی تمام خبریں جھوٹی، من گھڑت اور بے بنیاد ہیں۔پاسپورٹ جاری کرنا مرکزی حکومت کا ڈومین ھے ۔
صوبائی اسمبلی کے اراکین اور کابینہ کے ارکان پہلے سے مقررہ قواعد و ضوابط کے مطابق اپنی قانونی مراعات…— Shafi Jan (@ShafiJanPTI) July 7, 2026
The law repeals a 1988 statute of the same name and replaces it with a broader set of powers, immunities and benefits for the province's 145 lawmakers.
Sweeping new benefits
Under Section 13 of the act, members are entitled to free lodging for up to three days at any government circuit house, rest house or dak bungalow; eight licenses for non-prohibited-bore weapons, four issued free for life and four for a fee; and exemption from all toll taxes. Lawmakers may also fix a plaque bearing "MPA" on their personal vehicles, use VIP lounges at airports nationwide, and use vehicles with tinted or darkened glass.The same section grants members an official passport, with the identical privilege extended to their spouses for life, "subject to the provisions of applicable Federal Law." Members' spouses are also entitled to an assembly identification card. Lawmakers additionally gain the powers of a justice of the peace and can visit jails, hospitals and other publicly funded institutions to inspect their operations.
Section 12 entitles members to Category-B security details for the duration of their tenure, upgradable to Category-A after a threat assessment. Guards may carry weapons on a member's behalf anywhere in Pakistan, including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Broader legal immunities
The act also shields lawmakers from a range of legal proceedings. Section 10 grants members blanket immunity from preventive detention, a marked expansion from the repealed 1988 law, which only barred such detention in narrow windows around assembly and committee sessions, according to Dawn's review of the statute. Under Section 11, authorities must now obtain the speaker's prior permission before arresting a member on a criminal charge or offense.Members are also exempted from court attendance while the assembly or its committees are in session, and their salaries and allowances cannot be seized to satisfy a court judgment. No civil or criminal case may be brought against a member over anything said or raised in the assembly or a committee. Separately, the act creates a Judicial Committee empowered to try breach-of-privilege offenses such as insulting a lawmaker or publishing a "defamatory or derogatory" report on assembly proceedings with penalties of up to six months in prison or fines as high as Rs 1.0 million.
Government pushback amid backlash
The legislation was one of three related measures the assembly passed the same day, alongside a members' salaries and allowances act and a separate privileges act for the speaker and deputy speaker.Screenshots of the enacted laws began circulating online this week, reigniting debate over the scope of the benefits and the implications of some of the new provisions.
Critics questioned the toll tax exemptions, passport entitlements, arms licenses and free guest-house lodging as out of step with the province's more pressing needs, according to social media posts cited by the Express Tribune.
A spokesperson for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi pushed back on the criticism, rejecting claims that the assembly had approved blue passports for lawmakers and their spouses or a law allowing journalists to be jailed for six months, calling such reports "false" and "baseless."
The spokesperson said passport issuance falls under federal, not provincial, jurisdiction. However, the passport provision appears in the text of the enacted legislation, and a companion measure, the members' salaries and allowances act, contains similar language, according to the Tribune's review of the laws.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Secretariat did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the discrepancy between the government's denial and the published text of the acts.
