Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939

The Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939 sets up the legal basis for tracking non-citizens present in, entering, or leaving Pakistan. Section 2 defines a "foreigner" simply as anyone who is not a citizen of Pakistan. The Act itself does not spell out registration procedures directly; instead, Section 3 empowers the Federal Government to make detailed rules covering how foreigners must report their presence, movements between places, and intended departure to a prescribed authority, and to produce proof of identity on demand.

The rule-making power also reaches beyond individual foreigners. Under Section 3(e) and (f), hotels, boarding houses, sarais, and similar premises must report any foreigner staying with them, and anyone managing a vessel or aircraft must furnish information about foreigners entering or leaving Pakistan by that vessel or aircraft, and assist authorities in enforcing the Act.

Section 4 places the burden of proof on the individual: if a dispute arises about whether someone is a foreigner (or belongs to a particular class of foreigner), that person must prove they are not, overriding the ordinary rule under the Evidence Act, 1872. Section 5 sets penalties for contravening any rule made under the Act — imprisonment up to one year or a fine up to one thousand rupees (or both) for a foreigner, and a fine up to five hundred rupees for anyone else (such as a hotel keeper who fails to report a foreign guest).

Section 6 lets the Federal Government exempt individual foreigners or classes of foreigners from some or all of the rules. Section 7 protects officials and others from suits for actions taken in good faith under the Act, and Section 8 clarifies this Act works alongside, not instead of, the Foreigners Act, 1946. The law is over 80 years old and has been amended several times (including substitutions in 1950, 1957, and 1975); the penalty amounts in particular are quite old and should be checked against current practice.