Enemy Agents Ordinance, 1943

The Enemy Agents Ordinance, 1943 is a wartime emergency law that creates a special criminal justice process for people accused of spying for, or otherwise aiding, an enemy of Pakistan. Section 2 defines an "enemy" as any state at war with Pakistan and an "enemy agent" as a person (not a member of an enemy armed force) employed by, working for, or acting on instructions from the enemy. Section 3 makes it a capital offence — punishable with death — to be an enemy agent, or to do, attempt, or conspire to do any act intended to assist enemy military operations, hinder Pakistan's or an allied power's forces, or endanger life, with intent to aid the enemy.

Sections 5-9 set up special courts: the Federal Government appoints "Special Judges" (experienced former Sessions Judges) to try these offences, with power to transfer cases between judges, follow an expedited warrant-case procedure (Section 7), and pass any sentence authorised by law (Section 8). Convictions carrying a death sentence or life transportation, or cases the Special Judge certifies as unusually difficult, must be reviewed by a sitting or former High Court judge appointed by the Federal Government, whose decision is final (Section 9).

The Ordinance strips away several normal legal protections: Section 10 allows proceedings to be held in camera (closed to the public) if the judge thinks it necessary for public safety; Section 11 limits which lawyers ("pleaders") may appear, requiring they be on a government-approved list; Section 12 allows a deceased or unavailable witness's statement recorded by a Magistrate to be used as evidence, departing from normal evidence rules; Section 13 lets the trial proceed without the accused present if they make themselves incapable of appearing or behave disruptively; and Section 14 bars any appeal from, or other court's interference with, a Special Judge's decisions except as the Ordinance itself allows. Section 16 makes it an offence, punishable by up to two years' imprisonment or a fine or both, to disclose information about these proceedings without government authorisation, and Section 14A similarly restricts and requires the return of any copies of case records.

This is an emergency wartime measure from 1943, still amended as late as 1975, that authorises the death penalty and removes normal appeal rights — given its exceptional and security-sensitive nature, whether it remains in active use and how it interacts with later constitutional and human-rights protections should be checked against current law rather than assumed from the text alone.