Measures of Length Act, 1889

This is a very old colonial-era law from 1889 that made the British imperial standard yard the official legal measure of length across Pakistan (originally British India). Section 2 declares the imperial standard yard for the United Kingdom to be the legal standard measure of length, calling it simply "the standard yard."

Section 3 required a copy of the official measure for determining the length of the standard yard to be kept at a place chosen by the provincial government, to serve as the reference standard. Section 4 defines a standard foot as one-third of the standard yard and a standard inch as one-thirty-sixth of the standard yard.

Section 5 creates a legal presumption: any officially certified measure bearing a stamped certificate (issued by an authorised government authority) confirming it matches the standard yard, foot, or inch is presumed accurate in court unless its inaccuracy is proven. Section 6 requires the public servant responsible for such a certified measure to allow anyone to inspect it free of charge and compare their own measuring instruments against it. Section 7 required certain authorities (originally including city police commissioners and municipal officers in colonial-era cities) to keep certified standard measures on hand.

This law is extremely old, dating to 1889, and its practical significance today is largely historical: Pakistan has since adopted the metric system as its official system of measurement under the Weights and Measures (International System) Act, 1967. Given the extensive amendment history visible in the text (repeated changes through 1937, 1949, and 1960) and the shift to metric standards, this Act's provisions on the imperial yard are unlikely to reflect Pakistan's current measurement standards, and readers should not rely on it for present-day weights-and-measures rules.