Railway Stores (Unlawful Possession) Ordinance, 1944

The Railway Stores (Unlawful Possession) Ordinance, 1944 (Ordinance XIX of 1944) creates a specific criminal offence for possessing railway property without lawful authority. Section 1 extends the Ordinance to the whole of Pakistan (per a 1960 amendment) and it came into force at once.

Section 2 defines "railway stores" broadly to include any article used, or intended to be used, in the construction, operation, or maintenance of a railway.

Section 3 is the offence: anyone found in possession of, or proved to have been in possession of, any article of railway stores is punishable — if the court has reasonable grounds to believe the article was or is the property of a railway administration — with imprisonment for up to five years, or a fine, or both, unless the person proves the article came into their possession lawfully. This effectively places the burden of proof on the possessor to explain lawful acquisition once reasonable grounds for suspicion are shown.

This is a narrow, wartime-origin criminal statute still framed around railway theft/possession offences. Given its age (1944) and the 1960 amendment shown in the extract, current wording and any overlap with later railway or property offence laws should be checked against the official text.