Control of Employment Ordinance, 1965

This is an emergency-era law from September 1965, passed during the Proclamation of Emergency issued in connection with that year's war, giving government bodies sweeping power to control and direct employment in "industrial undertakings." Section 2 defines "industrial undertaking" broadly to include manufacturers, suppliers of light/power/gas/water, mechanised transport operators, technical training centres, and anything else the government notifies as such; it also defines "essential work" and "essential personnel" by reference to the Essential Personnel (Registration) Ordinance, 1948.

Section 3 makes the Federal Government the overall policy-making body on manpower issues during an emergency. Section 4 requires each Provincial Government to set up a Manpower Board, chaired by the Secretary of the Labour Department, with members representing the Industries, Finance, and Home Departments plus GHQ, the Railway Board, the Road Transport Corporation, and Technical Education. Section 5 gives the Board very wide powers: it can demand information from any employer, direct that enough workers are available for a given undertaking, require people to undertake essential work, prohibit or control employment, regulate dismissals, order the release, transfer, or testing of workers, and authorize its officers to enter and search industrial premises and question staff.

Section 6 makes compliance with Board orders mandatory, with an appeal to the Provincial Government or an officer it appoints, and failure to comply is itself made an offence. Section 7 requires an employer to reinstate a worker who was released for essential work or compulsory military-type service once that work or service ends; if reinstatement isn't practical, the Manpower Tribunal (a Labour Court under the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969, per Section 9) can order the employer to pay compensation of at least six months' pay instead, and an employer who ignores the reinstatement duty or a Tribunal order is punishable with imprisonment up to six months or a fine up to one thousand rupees, or both, in addition to compensation the court may order (Section 7(4)). Section 8 lets the Board set up local Advisory Committees representing employers, workers, and various government departments.

Section 10 lets government declare specific undertakings "notified," requiring them to report vacancies to the Board and hire only with the Board's permission. Sections 11-12 make it an offence to give false statements to obtain or avoid essential work, or to give false information about an undertaking, and hold company officers personally liable unless they can show they exercised due diligence. Section 13 sets the Ordinance's general penalty at imprisonment up to six months or a fine up to one thousand rupees, or both, for offences that aren't punished elsewhere in the Ordinance, and requires the Board's prior written sanction before prosecution, with trial only before a Magistrate of the first class or higher. Section 15 protects officials acting in good faith, and Section 17 exempts undertakings owned or managed by government itself.

This is a wartime emergency ordinance that has been amended repeatedly since 1965 (footnotes show changes in 1969, 1971, and 1984), and given its origin as an emergency command-economy measure, readers should check whether it remains in active force and how it interacts with current labour law before relying on its specific fine amounts, which reflect 1960s-1980s values.