Civil Laws

The Stamp Act, 1899 sets out which legal and financial documents attract stamp duty, how that duty is calculated, paid, and adjudicated, and the consequences - including inadmissibility as evidence - of using an improperly stamped document.

A 1939 law defining Pakistan's historical (pre-metric) standard units of weight — the tola, seer, maund, pound, and ton — anchored to a physical reference cylinder, later superseded in practice by metric standards.

This 1981 Ordinance sets out when foreign states are immune from being sued in Pakistani courts and lists key exceptions - commercial transactions, employment, property, arbitration, and shipping disputes - where that immunity does not apply.

Consolidates Pakistan's civil law on both intestate succession (how an estate is divided when someone dies without a will) and testamentary succession (making, interpreting, and revoking wills), plus rules on domicile and kinship used to determine who inherits.

A short 1887 procedural law that fixes how civil suits, especially those relating to land, are valued for determining which court has jurisdiction, and restricts when a party can challenge a case on appeal by arguing it was wrongly valued.

A now-repealed 1976 law that defined Pakistan's territorial waters (12 nautical miles), contiguous zone, continental shelf, and 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, and criminalised violations of these maritime rules; superseded by Act XVIII of 2023.

Governs trademark registration, rights, infringement, and customs enforcement against counterfeit goods in Pakistan, including online domain names and international registration via the Madrid Protocol.

The Trade Organizations Act, 2013 sets out how chambers of commerce, industry associations, and similar all-Pakistan trade bodies are licensed, registered, and regulated by a designated Regulator, covering membership rules, governance, penalties, and mergers.

This 1956 law set up a Custodian of Deposits to transfer court-held deposits belonging to people who had left Pakistan for India to authorities in India, and to receive and distribute similar deposits sent from India belonging to refugees who had come to Pakistan.

A 1972 Act transferring evacuee land occupied by katchi abadi residents into their ownership, subject to payment, while resuming unclaimed evacuee land.

Pakistan's core civil law on transferring movable and immovable property by agreement, covering sales, mortgages and charges, leases, exchanges, gifts, and the transfer of debts and other actionable claims.

A 1976 law requiring travel agencies in Pakistan to be licensed and maintain a business guarantee fund, with a regulatory Committee overseeing service charges, complaints, and licence suspension or cancellation under Section 11.

A 1964 law restoring Supreme Court and High Court jurisdiction over the Tribal Areas of the Quetta Division, which had lapsed under a 1963 constitutional amendment, and extending related limitation periods.

An 1882 law defining private trusts in Pakistan -- how they are created, the duties and powers of trustees, the rights of beneficiaries, and how trusts end -- though it does not apply to Muslim waqf or religious endowments and has been repealed for the Islamabad Capital Territory.

The Validation of Laws Act, 1975 is a short constitutional housekeeping law that formally confirms, under Article 270 of the Constitution, that a long list of Presidents' Orders, Ordinances, and Martial Law Regulations made during the 1969-1971 martial law period were validly enacted.

A 1961 Ordinance requiring voluntary social welfare organisations (NGOs) to register with a government Registration Authority, keep audited accounts, and submit to inspection and possible suspension or dissolution, with fines of up to two thousand rupees and up to six months' imprisonment for violations.