The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on Rules and Privileges on Monday finalised amendments and changes in over 290 NA rules ranging from imposing penalties on unruly members to nomination criteria of the opposition leader. Dr Sher Afgan Niazi, the parliamentary affairs minister, told Daily Times the committee had approved the amendments and changes and had decided to redraft all of them. The new rules allow the president to identify unruly MNAs when he addresses a joint sitting of parliament. The NA speaker will act against the MNAs the president names. Under the amended rules the speaker will have the authority to suspend the salary of the unruly member(s) for that particular session. The speaker will also be able to suspend the membership of unruly MNAs for one or more sessions. He said the rules would be tabled in the next NA session scheduled for February. He said all the rules were endorsed by the committee members unanimously. The minister stated the only reservation was on the amendment in the rule related to the standing committees of the house. He said the committee would finally deal with that issue in the next meeting. Sources said one of the committee members proposed that members of the National Assembly (MNAs) be given authority to discuss the conduct of the judiciary in parliament. However, that proposal was rejected. The committee also endorsed the rule to allocate one hour every week in which the prime minister would directly respond to the queries of the members.According to another amended rule, the appointment of opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman might be challenged. Now anyone with the support of most opposition members would be declared the opposition leader. The opposition leader would be nominated within seven days of the ascertainment of the leader of the house. The calendar of business of the year will also be issued with the commencement of the parliamentary year. The other changes approved by the committee related to the election of the speaker and his deputy, powers and functions of the speaker, election of the prime minister and leader of the house, leave of absence registration and vacation of seats in the assembly, sitting of the assembly and classification and arrangements of business and the president's address and message to the house.