Lighthouse Act, 1927

The Lighthouse Act, 1927 consolidates the law on how lighthouses and related navigational aids are provided, maintained, and controlled in Pakistan. Section 2 defines "lighthouse" broadly to include not just physical towers but light-vessels, fog-signals, buoys, beacons, and any mark, sign, or apparatus used to guide ships, and distinguishes between "general lighthouses" (declared as such by the Federal Government) and "local lighthouses" (everything else, typically run by provincial or local authorities).

Section 3 lets the Federal Government define lighthouse "districts" and appoint the officials who run the system: a Superintendent of Lighthouses for each district, a Chief Inspector of Lighthouses for the whole country, and Inspectors of Lighthouses. Section 4 requires a Central Advisory Committee (representing affected interests) to be consulted on things like where lighthouses are built, altered, or removed, and on the rates of dues charged, and allows optional district-level advisory committees as well.

Section 5 puts general lighthouses directly under Federal Government management, though the government can delegate day-to-day running to a local lighthouse authority and must pay it for the cost of doing so. Sections 6-8 cover local lighthouses: the Chief Inspector (or an authorised Superintendent/Inspector) can enter and inspect any local lighthouse, and the Federal Government can direct a local authority to build, remove, or change a lighthouse if it decides this is needed for shipping safety -- though the local authority must generally give one month's notice before making changes itself, except in emergencies.

A substantial part of the Act (Sections 9-19) deals with "light-dues" -- the fees ships pay for using lighthouses -- covering how they are levied and collected, how a ship's tonnage is worked out for billing purposes, recovery of unpaid dues (including refusing port-clearance to a ship until dues are paid), what happens when there's a dispute about liability, penalties for evading payment, exemptions for certain ships or voyages, and a rule that refund claims for overpayment must be made within six months. Section 20 requires the Federal Government to keep separate accounts of light-dues income and lighthouse expenditure, reported to the Central Advisory Committee each year.

This is a very old law (1927) that has been amended many times, including changes to institutional names ("Federal Government" replacing "Central Government," etc.) through amendments in 1937, 1949, 1960, and 1975. Notably, Section 22 and the original Schedule of this Act were themselves repealed by the Repealing Act, 1938, so parts of the Act as originally passed no longer apply; readers should confirm the current in-force text before relying on specific procedural details.