Capital Development Authority (Abatement of Arbitration Proceedings) Act, 1975

This 1975 Act cancelled arbitration clauses and proceedings involving the Capital Development Authority (CDA) after the government found that arbitration hadn't been achieving its intended purpose for disputes arising from the CDA's construction and supply contracts. Section 2 defines "Authority" as the CDA (established under the Capital Development Authority Ordinance, 1960) and "contractor" as any local (non-foreign) person, firm or company that had contracted with the CDA for projects, works, goods, labour or other obligations, including sub-contractors.

Section 3 is the operative provision, applying regardless of any existing law, court order, or agreement: any arbitration clause in a pre-existing CDA-contractor agreement is annulled and voided; any arbitration proceedings already underway (whether started by consent, court order, or otherwise) immediately abate and become ineffective; any arbitration award not yet made into a court order or already implemented is annulled; any court proceedings about referring a dispute to arbitration abate, and any court order referring a dispute to arbitration becomes ineffective; and any dispute whose arbitration abated under this section must instead be decided under the ordinary law in force. Arbitrator fees for abated proceedings or annulled awards are determined by the relevant court (unless the parties agree) based on how far the proceedings had progressed, capped at whatever fee amount the Authority and contractors had originally agreed.

Section 4 addresses limitation periods: when calculating time limits for a suit or application relating to a dispute affected by Section 3, the time between the arbitration agreement's execution, the arbitration reference, or a court application for arbitration -- and the Act's commencement -- is excluded from the limitation calculation, though this doesn't revive a limitation period that had already expired before the arbitration reference began.

This is a narrow, retrospective law specific to the CDA's construction-era disputes from the mid-1970s. Given its very specific historical purpose and age, it is likely of limited ongoing practical relevance today, though it remains on the books as enacted.