Pakistan National Council of the Arts Act, 1973

This Act establishes the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA), a body corporate for the patronage, promotion, and development of the arts in Pakistan. Section 3 lets the Federal Government create the Council by Gazette notification, giving it the legal power to acquire, hold, and dispose of property, and to sue and be sued in its own name.

Section 4 places overall management in a Board of Governors chaired by the Federal Minister for Culture (with a Minister of State for Culture, or a Board nominee, as Vice-Chairman), including the Secretary and Joint Secretary of the Culture Division, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Director of Archaeology, the heads of Pakistan Television Corporation and Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation, and twenty persons -- including at least five women -- eminent in art and culture, nominated by the Chairman. Board members (other than ex-officio ones) serve three-year terms and are eligible for reappointment.

Section 5 provides for a Director-General appointed by the Chairman, who serves as the Council's chief executive and reports to the Board. Section 7 lists the Council's wide-ranging functions: advising government on arts policy, coordinating and evaluating cultural organisations, helping provinces set up their own Art Councils, running art academies, museums, exhibition halls, and galleries, organising exhibitions and cultural festivals within Pakistan and abroad, forming national artists' unions, and liaising with similar organisations internationally through the Federal Government. Where a grant-receiving cultural organisation appears to mismanage its affairs, the Council can investigate and report to the Federal Government.

Section 8 funds the Council through federal and provincial government grants plus donations and contributions, and Section 9 requires its accounts to be audited by a Chartered Accountant appointed by the Federal Government in consultation with the Auditor-General. This Act has been amended since 1973 (notably in 1979, restructuring the Board of Governors), but its institutional framework for Pakistan's national arts body remains the core of its operation today.