Karachi Essential Articles (Price Control and Antl-Hoarding) Act, 1953

This 1953 law gave the government official for the Karachi Division (originally called the "Chief Commissioner," later the "Commissioner") sweeping powers to control the trade of everyday essential goods during shortages. Section 2 lets the Commissioner declare, by public notice, which goods count as "essential articles" the law applies to. From there, Section 3 allows the Commissioner to fix maximum prices for those goods and require shops to display price lists, while Section 4 makes it illegal for any wholesaler, retailer or trader to buy or sell above that fixed price, or to sell unmarked goods where marking has been required.

Beyond pricing, the Act lets authorities cap how much of an essential item a trader can stockpile (Section 5), require a licence before anyone can even deal in a controlled item (Section 6), and force traders to sell to specific people or groups (Section 7) or stop them refusing to sell within legal limits (Section 8). Section 9 requires traders to keep accounts and register their storage godowns, and Section 10 gives inspectors the power to enter, search and seize goods and documents where they suspect a violation.

Government purchases are excluded from the Act (Section 11), and the Commissioner can exempt people or classes of traders from any of its requirements (Section 12). Section 13 ties enforcement to the separate Hoarding and Black Market Act, 1948, treating any breach of this Act as an offence of hoarding or black-marketing under that law. Officials acting under the Act are protected from lawsuits for good-faith actions (Section 17), and the Act replaced an earlier 1953 Ordinance on the same subject (Section 18).

This is a very old law, heavily amended over the decades (the extract shows multiple "Subs. by A.O." and Ordinance amendments changing "Chief Commissioner" to "Agent" to "Commissioner", and "Federal Territory of Karachi" to "Karachi Division"), so anyone relying on it should check the current official text and whether it is still actively used, since price-control and essential-goods regimes are often superseded by later legislation.