Offences Against Property (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979

The Offences Against Property (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979 reworked Pakistan's law on theft and robbery-type offences to bring it in line with Islamic injunctions, as stated in its preamble. It applies across the whole of Pakistan (Section 1) and, under Section 3, overrides any other law dealing with the same subject.

Section 4 divides theft into two categories: theft liable to "hadd" (a punishment described in the Ordinance as ordained by the Holy Quran or Sunnah) and theft liable to "tazir" (a discretionary punishment). Under Section 5, theft is liable to hadd only if an adult surreptitiously takes property worth at least the "nisab" - defined in Section 6 as 4.457 grams of gold or property of equivalent value - from a place of secure custody ("hirz", defined in Section 2).

Section 7 sets a demanding evidentiary standard for hadd: it can only be established by the accused's own guilty plea, or by the testimony of at least two adult Muslim male eyewitnesses whom the court is satisfied are truthful and of good character (non-Muslim eyewitnesses are permitted if the accused is non-Muslim). Section 9 prescribes escalating hadd punishments - amputation of the right hand for a first offence, the left foot for a second, and life imprisonment for a third or subsequent offence - though these amputation sentences cannot be carried out until confirmed by the appellate court. Section 10 lists situations where hadd cannot be imposed at all, such as theft between close relatives, by a guest from a host, by a servant from an employer's property, or under duress ("ikrah" or "iztrar"), while Section 11 lists situations where an already-ordered hadd sentence cannot be enforced, such as a retracted confession or withdrawn testimony.

Sections 15-20 define and punish "haraabah" - robbery or dacoity-type offences involving force, threats, or wrongful restraint to take property. Under Section 17, punishment ranges from whipping plus a minimum three-year prison term (where no property is taken and no one is killed), to amputation of a hand and foot (where property worth at least the nisab is taken), up to death imposed as hadd (where the offender commits murder in the course of the offence).

Where theft or haraabah does not meet the threshold or evidentiary standard for hadd, it is instead punished as tazir under the ordinary theft, robbery, dacoity, or extortion provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code (Sections 13-14, 20). Sections 23-25 apply relevant provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 to proceedings under this Ordinance, and require that the presiding judicial officer be Muslim, unless the accused is non-Muslim (Section 25).

This is old legislation from 1979, part of Pakistan's Hudood Ordinances, and has itself been amended since enactment - the footnotes reference amendment ordinances from 1980 and 1982. Given the severity of the punishments it describes and its significance, anyone relying on this text should verify its current wording and standing against the official text and any subsequent legal developments.