Law & Legal system of Pakistan

Introduction
Introduction to
Law & Legal
System
• What is ‘Law’?
• Why laws are made?
• What is justice?
Law

• What is ‘Law’?
“Law is the command of the sovereign”
“Law is the right of one, obligation of the other, maintained by law enforcing
authority”
“Law is the experience, developed by reason and reason, tested by experience”
Law is the ‘dispassionate reason’ and its content is the same as that of morality.
Why Law should be there?
• Uniformity and certainty
• Equality & impartiality
• Protection from errors

• But
• Rigidity
• Conservatism
• Formalism
• Needless complexities
Justice

Justice means every man given his legal right

Natural Justice (Moral)

Legal Justice (Legal)

• a. Private justice
• b. Public justice
• (a) Civil justice
• (b) Criminal justice
 By Law Giver
Parliament
How Law
comes into Legislator
form?
State
Supreme Law
 Common
Equity Statute law
law

Substantive Procedural
Private law
law law
kinds of
law Public law Criminal law Civil law

International Municipal
Law Law
 Kinds of Law
Common Law

The body of law derived from judicial decisions, rather than from
statutes or constitutions.
Equity

Qualifies moderates and reforms the rigor, hardness and edge of

the Common law
Legal sources

Legislation

Custom

Precedent

Agreement
 Law Making

Kinds of legislation

Supreme and ordinary legislation

Legislation
Primary and secondary legislation

Kinds of secondary legislation

• a. Executive legislation
• b. Municipal legislation
• c. Autonomous legislation
• d. Judicial legislation
 long established practices or unwritten rules which have
acquired binding or obligatory character

Legal Custom: Legal custom is a custom whose authority is

absolute; it possesses the force of law. It is recognized and
enforced by the courts. Legal custom may be further
Custom classified into the following two types:
General Customs: These types of customs prevail
throughout the territory of the State.

Local Customs: Local customs are applicable to a part of the

State, or a particular region of the country.
 Precedent or authority is a judgment or decision of a court that is
cited in a subsequent dispute as an example or analogy to justify
deciding a similar case or point of law in the same manner.
Common law and equity, as found in English and American legal
systems, rely strongly on the body of established precedents.

Ratio decidendi’ refers to the binding part of a judgment

Precedent
An ‘obiter dictum’ refers to parts of judicial decisions which are
general observations of the judge
Deciding a Case

• Issue of law: An issue of which answer is already

prescribed in some rule of law.
• Issue of fact: Before dealing with ‘issue of fact’, it is
important to first understand the term ‘fact’---‘fact’
includes the following:
• (a)Anything, state of things or relation of things
capable of being perceived by senses; and
• (b) Any mental condition of which any person is
conscious.
• Issue of fact means an issue other than the issue of
law.
 Supreme Court of Pakistan
Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan
High Courts of Pakistan (one in each

Judicial province and also in federal capital)

Lahore High Court, Lahore, Punjab

System Sindh High Court, Karachi, Sindh

Peshawar High Court, Peshawar,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Balochistan High Court, Quetta,
Baluchistan
• Islamabad High Court, Islamabad, ICT
• District Courts of Pakistan (one in
each district)
• Judicial Magistrate Courts (in every
town and city)
• Executive Magistrate Courts
(Summary trial court)
• Courts of Civil Judge (judges with
power of 1st class and 2nd class cases)
• Family Courts
• Juvenile Courts
 Following Banking Courts
are the
special Services Tribunals
tribunals Income Tax Tribunals
in
Pakistan: Anti-Corruption Courts
Tribunals Anti-Narcotics Courts

and Boards Anti-terrorist Courts

Labor Relations Court
Board of Revenue
Special Magistrate courts
Consumer Courts - drug courts
 Parliament

Law Making in National Assembly

Pakistan

Provincial Assembly
 First reading: Bill arrives.

Second reading: Main debate on

purpose and key areas of the bill.
How a Bill is
Passed Committee stage: Detailed line by line
scrutiny of the text with amendments (proposed changes). Votes may
take place to decide whether to make the changes.
Report stage: Further
examination of the text. More
amendments are debated and further votes take place to decide

whether to make the

changes .
Stages of Bill to be approved/passed
• First reading: Bill arrives.
• Second reading: Main debate on purpose and key areas of the bill.
• Committee stage: Detailed line by line scrutiny of the text with
amendments (proposed changes). Votes may take place to decide whether
to make the changes.
• Report stage: Further examination of the text. More amendments are
debated and further votes take place to decide whether to make the
changes.
• Third reading: After clause by clause consideration of the Bill, the member-
in-charge of the Bill can move a motion that the Bill (or the Bill, as
amended, as the case may be) be passed. At this stage, the debate is
confined to arguments either in support or for rejection of the Bill without
referring to the details thereof
• Presidential Assent: When both Houses agree the final content, a bill is
assented by the Parliament and becomes a law or ‘Act of Parliament’.
 First reading

Committee stage

Legislative Report stage

Process
Third reading

Presidential Assent
How a Bill is Passed
• Third reading: After clause by clause consideration of the Bill, the
member-in-charge of the Bill can move a motion that the Bill (or
the Bill, as amended, as the case may be) be passed. At this stage,
the debate is confined to arguments either in support or for
rejection of the Bill without referring to the details thereof.
• Presidential Assent: When both Houses agree the final content, a
bill is assented by the Parliament and becomes a law or ‘Act of
Parliament’
 • Bill
• A proposal to make or amend a law is brought before the

Legislative Assembly in the form of a Bill i.e. the proposed draft law. A Bill is,
in fact, a motion to make a law. A notice of a Bill must contain a
statement of objects and reasons; however, no such statement is

Procedure required in the case of an Ordinance laid in the Assembly. A Bill

with respect to any matter within the Provincial legislative field
may, subject to the rules, be introduced in the Assembly.

Provincial • Introduction of a Bill

Assembly • On introduction, a bill is published in the official Gazette, and

the Speaker refers it to the Standing Committee concerned, with
the direction to submit its report by a specified date. However,
the Finance Bill is not referred to any Committee. When the
report of the Standing Committee on a Bill has been received,
the Bill may be taken into consideration at once or it may be
referred to a Select Committee or it may be circulated for
eliciting opinion thereon. The Assembly considers the Bill in
three stages, normally called the three readings of the Bill.
• First Reading of the Bill
• On the day fixed for consideration of the Bill, the principles of the Bill
and its general provisions may be discussed but the details of the Bill are
not discussed further than is necessary to explain its principles. At this
stage, the Assembly is required to decide whether or not it wishes to
consider the Bill further.

• Second Reading of the Bill

• At this stage, the Assembly considers a Bill clause by clause. At this stage
any member may propose such amendments to the Bill as are within the
scope and relevant to the subject matter of the Bill. Each clause is put to
the vote of the Assembly.
 • Third Reading of the Bill
• After the Assembly has completed the second stage of
a Bill and has voted in respect of all the clauses of a Bill,
a motion is moved by the member/minister concerned
that the Bill be passed. The Assembly may pass the Bill
Bill by a majority of the members present and voting.
• Assent and Publication
• A bill passed by the Assembly is submitted to the
Governor for assent. When a Bill is assented to by the
Governor, the Assembly Secretariat publishes it in the
official Gazette as an Act of the Assembly.
 • As to Nature:
• Money bill relates to finance matters. Ordinary
Money bill & bill relates to the interest of private or public
persons.
Ordinary bill • As to origin:
Difference • Money bill can be originated only in national
assembly. Ordinary bill can be originated in
either house.
• As to transmission:
• Money bill is not transmitted to other house.
Ordinary bill is transmitted to other house when
passed by one house.