Limitation (Emergency and War Conditions) Act, 1965

The Limitation (Emergency and War Conditions) Act, 1965 is a short, narrowly targeted law that extends the normal legal deadlines (limitation periods) for filing lawsuits, appeals, and applications, for people who were unable to meet those deadlines because of war or armed hostilities. Its preamble ties it to the displacement of persons from certain areas and to people detained in enemy territory in circumstances linked to war, and Section 1 makes it apply across the whole of Pakistan, deemed to have taken effect from 6 September 1965 - during the 1965 Pakistan-India war.

Section 3 covers people displaced from an "affected area" - an area the federal government has formally declared, by notification in the official Gazette, to be affected by war or armed hostilities (a notification that can even be issued with retrospective effect, per Section 2). If a limitation deadline for a suit, appeal, application, or other required act would have expired while the relevant area remained an "affected area," the person gets six months from the date the area stops being an affected area to take that action instead.

Section 4 gives similar relief to anyone detained in "enemy territory" - territory controlled by a state at war with Pakistan - because of war or armed hostilities. If a limitation period expired while they were so detained, they get six months from the end of their detention to act; and if a person was detained for more than one separate period, those periods are added together and treated as one continuous period of detention for this purpose.

The extension under Section 4 does not apply to suits brought to enforce a right of pre-emption, nor to any suit, appeal, or application that might be brought by an "enemy subject" - defined as a national of a state at war with Pakistan.

This is a short, historically specific Act tied to the circumstances of the 1965 war, and its practical relevance today depends on whether the government has any current "affected area" or "enemy territory" notifications in force under it; its continuing applicability should be checked against any later legislation or notifications.