Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (Transfer of Projects and Companies) Act, 1974

This 1974 Act transferred a specific list of industrial projects and companies -- previously owned and managed by the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) -- to newly designated, more specialised state-owned corporations, effective from 13 August 1973 (called the 'appointed day' in Section 4). Section 2 defines the key terms: a 'corporation' is a wholly Federal Government-owned company under the Companies Act, 1913; a 'managed company' is one where PIDC held some or all shares and acted as managing agent; and a 'project' is defined very broadly to include all the physical assets, land, buildings, stock, records, contracts, and liabilities connected with it.

The Schedule lists exactly which projects and companies moved to which new corporation: Maple-Leaf Cement Factory, Zeal-Pak Cement Factory, White Cement Industries, and the Daudkhel Gypsum and Limestone Quarries all went to the State Cement Corporation of Pakistan; Antibiotics (Private) Ltd, Kurram Chemical Company, and the Swat China Clay development project went to the Federal Chemical and Ceramic Corporation; Pak-American Fertilizers Ltd went to the National Fertilizer Corporation of Pakistan; the Pakistan Machine Tool Factory (Landhi), the Heavy Mechanical Complex (Taxila), and the Heavy Foundry and Forge Project (Taxila) went to the State Heavy Engineering and Machine Tool Corporation; and the Heavy Electrical Complex Project went to the State Electrical Corporation of Pakistan.

Section 3 makes the Act override any conflicting law, contract or agreement. Section 5 carries over all existing contracts, court cases and legal proceedings involving PIDC for these projects to the new corporation automatically, without needing them to be redone. Section 6 automatically transfers every officer, workman and employee working on a transferred project to the new corporation's employment, on terms no less favourable than before, though the transfer itself does not entitle them to any compensation. Section 7 provides that an employee who, without good reason, fails to actually join the new employer has their service terminated, with dues paid by PIDC. Section 8 moves each transferred employee's accumulated provident fund balance to the new employer's provident fund.

Section 10 bars courts from questioning anything done under the Act, and Section 11 indemnifies the government, PIDC, and the new corporations against lawsuits for anything done in good faith under the Act. Section 12 gives the Federal Government rule-making power, and Section 13 lets it resolve implementation difficulties by order, but only within one year of the Act commencing.

This is a historical, 1970s-era nationalisation and industrial-restructuring law tied to a specific, one-time reorganisation of state industrial holdings shortly after Pakistan's major nationalisations. Given the extensive privatisation of Pakistani state enterprises in the decades since, many of the corporations and companies named in the Schedule may no longer exist in their 1974 form, so this law is likely now of largely historical interest; its current relevance to any specific entity should be checked.