Validation of Laws Act, 1975

The Validation of Laws Act, 1975 is a short, purely administrative law with a single substantive provision. Section 2 declares that a long list of Presidents' Orders, Ordinances, Martial Law Regulations, and various provincial-level Ordinances and Regulations made between 25 March 1969 and 19 December 1971 - the period of military rule that preceded the 1971 war and the emergence of Bangladesh - are to be treated as having been validly made by a competent authority. This is done under the authority of Article 270(1) of the Constitution, which specifically allows Parliament to validate laws made during that period.

The Schedule attached to the Act lists every law being validated, organized by category. It covers President's Orders (such as the Province of West Pakistan (Dissolution) Order, 1970 and the High Courts (Establishment) Order, 1970), a long list of federal Ordinances from 1969 to 1971 (including amendments to the Income-tax law, the Sales Tax law, the State Bank of Pakistan Act, the Industrial Relations Ordinance, and dozens more), Martial Law Regulations, and separate lists of Ordinances and Regulations passed for the former West Pakistan, Punjab, Sindh, the North-West Frontier Province, and Balochistan during the same period.

Because the Act does not create any new rights, duties, or penalties of its own - it exists solely to remove any constitutional doubt about the legal validity of these earlier laws - it has no operative rules that affect ordinary people directly. Its practical importance today is mainly historical and legal-technical: it confirms the legal pedigree of a large body of now largely superseded laws from the martial law era of 1969-1971.