Civil Defence Act, 1952

This 1952 act gives the government powers to organize and run civil defence in Pakistan -- originally meant to protect the country against attacks by a foreign power, but Section 1A (as amended in 1994) broadened 'civil defence' to also cover remedial measures during a calamity or disaster in peacetime, not just wartime hostilities. Section 2 lets the Federal Government make detailed rules to secure civil defence, and lists an extensive range of matters those rules can cover: forming and disciplining Civil Defence Services, controlling trade and industry to secure defence-related supplies, requisitioning buildings and property, controlling lights, sounds and vehicles (blackout-type measures), evacuating and resettling people from affected areas, preventing fires, and entering and searching places suspected of being used against civil defence.

Section 2(3) allows these rules to carry criminal consequences: contravening a civil defence rule or order can be made punishable with imprisonment up to five years or a fine up to five thousand rupees, or both, and property connected to such a contravention can be seized and forfeited. Section 4 shields orders made under the Act from being challenged in court, and Section 5 protects the Government and any person acting in good faith under the Act from being sued.

Where property is compulsorily acquired under Section 7 in a way that amounts to acquisition under Article 24 of the Constitution, Section 6 sets out a detailed compensation mechanism: compensation is fixed by agreement where possible, or otherwise by an arbitrator qualified to be a High Court judge, applying principles borrowed from the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, with a right of appeal to the High Court against the arbitrator's award (subject to a minimum threshold below which no appeal lies, to be fixed by rules).

Section 7 lets the Government permanently acquire property that had only been temporarily requisitioned, in defined circumstances (for example, where the cost of restoring it would be excessive), and Section 8 covers how requisitioned property is eventually released and handed back. Section 10 repealed the earlier Civil Defence Ordinance, 1951, while preserving orders and rules already made under it.

This is an old act from 1952 that has been amended several times (1964, 1966, 1975, 1981 and 1994), including substantial changes to what rules can cover and to the definition of 'civil defence' itself. Given its age and multiple amendments, and the fact that it deals with sensitive matters like property requisition and criminal penalties, readers should check the current consolidated text rather than rely solely on this extract for exact figures or current terminology.