High Treason (Punishment) Act, 1973

This is a short 1973 law that spells out what happens to someone found guilty of high treason against Pakistan's Constitution. Section 1 says the Act applies across the whole country and came into force immediately on 26 September 1973.

Section 2 defines the offence in two ways: first, committing an act that abrogates (overthrows) or subverts a Constitution that was in force in Pakistan at any point since 23 March 1956; and second, high treason as defined in Article 6 of the Constitution. Anyone found guilty under either branch faces the death penalty or life imprisonment.

Section 3 puts a gatekeeping rule on prosecutions: no court can even take up a case under this Act unless a written complaint is filed by someone the Federal Government has specifically authorised to do so. In other words, private citizens or ordinary prosecutors cannot initiate a high treason case on their own -- it requires the government's authorised representative to file the complaint first.

The Act is very brief -- just three sections -- and works alongside Article 6 of the Constitution, which is the provision that actually defines high treason in detail. This law essentially supplies the punishment and procedural trigger for that constitutional offence.