The Chauhali Cognisance Court in Sirajganj on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant against Kushtia-3 lawmaker and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader Mufti Amir Hamza in a defamation case filed over his alleged derogatory remarks about power, energy and mineral resources affairs minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader  Iqbal Hasan Mahmood Tuku.

Judge Suman Karmakar of the court passed the order as the Jamaat lawmaker failed to appear before the court on the scheduled date.

This is the first instance of an arrest warrant being issued against a lawmaker of the 13th National Parliament.

Sirajganj District Bar Association general secretary Humayun Kabir Colonel, who is also the plaintiff in the case, said that during Tuesday’s hearing, the plaintiff’s side informed the court that Amir Hamza had disregarded its directives despite receiving the summons.

He said that his lawyer then requested the court to issue an arrest warrant against the accused.

At one point, the court wanted to know whether a sitting lawmaker could be arrested during an ongoing parliamentary session.

In response, the plaintiff’s lawyer stated that although the speaker’s permission is required to arrest a lawmaker, there is no legal bar to issuing an arrest warrant against one.

Taking the matter into consideration, the court issued the arrest warrant against Amir Hamza.

Court officials said that the defamation case was filed after Amir Hamza, at a public event on March 26, allegedly described Iqbal Hasan Mahmood Tuku as ‘an atheist’ and ‘anti-Islamic’.

On April 2, the court issued a summons asking him to appear before it on April 21, but he failed to comply with the order.

Amir Hamza also came under fresh criticism for making derogatory remarks about female lawmakers outside parliament.

Referring to a newspaper report, independent lawmaker Rumeen Farhana earlier this month expressed strong resentment in Jatiya Sangsad and sought the speaker’s intervention.