Tribal Areas (Restoration of Judisdiction) Act, 1964

The Tribal Areas (Restoration of Jurisdiction) Act, 1964 (Act II of 1964) restores court jurisdiction over the Tribal Areas of the Quetta Division. Section 1 says it came into force at once and is deemed to have taken effect retroactively from 10 January 1964.

The preamble explains the background: clause (5) of Article 223 of the Constitution barred the Supreme Court and High Courts from exercising jurisdiction in Tribal Areas unless the Central Legislature provided otherwise by law, even though before that constitutional clause took effect, the Supreme Court and the High Court of West Pakistan had exercised certain jurisdiction over the Tribal Areas of the Quetta Division.

Section 2 restores that jurisdiction: the Supreme Court and the High Court of Balochistan (per a later 1975 substitution noted in the footnotes) may exercise, in relation to the Tribal Areas of the Quetta Division, the same jurisdiction that the Supreme Court or High Court of West Pakistan exercised there before the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1963 took effect.

Section 3 addresses limitation periods: where a limitation period had already started running before the First Amendment Act, 1963 took effect, in a matter now covered by the restored jurisdiction, the time between 10 January 1964 and this Act's actual commencement is excluded when calculating that limitation period — though no such limitation period can expire earlier than thirty days after the Act's commencement date. This is a technical, historical jurisdictional statute specific to the Quetta Division tribal areas, amended in 1975 and 1981 as shown in the footnotes.