Op­po­si­tion PNM MP Amery Browne has chal­lenged Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad- Bisses­sar to ex­plain how cer­tain claus­es of the state of emer­gency reg­u­la­tions re­late to crime rather than the cur­rent in­dus­tri­al cli­mate.

Browne has point­ed to claus­es 7, 13 and 14 of the Emer­gency Pow­ers reg­u­la­tions (2011) un­der which the cur­rent state of emer­gency was in­sti­tut­ed. These claus­es de­bar pub­lic meet­ings, march­es and pro­ces­sions un­less with the per­mis­sion of the Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er . It al­so pro­hibits use of am­pli­fi­ca­tion of in­stru­ments. Claus­es al­so seek to de­bar per­sons from in­flu­enc­ing per­sons to breach the peace and on en­dan­ger­ing pub­lic safe­ty and oth­er ac­tiv­i­ty.Browne said, "I chal­lenge the Prime Min­is­ter to say how these reg­u­la­tions are rel­e­vant to what they are deem­ing an an­ti-crime ini­tia­tive be­cause the sen­ti­ments of many cit­i­zens are that such mea­sures in the reg­u­la­tions seem more de­signed to treat with civic, in­dus­tri­al and po­lit­i­cal un­rest," Not­ing as­pects of Gov­ern­ment's han­dling of the sit­u­a­tion, Browne said ,"The Gov­ern­ment has not been hon­est with the pop­u­la­tion with the mea­sures that have been im­posed or the rights that have been with­drawn and for what du­ra­tion ."