ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain on Tuesday approved enforcement of the Publication of Laws of Pakistan Act, 2016. The law is for regulating publication of law books, materials and their translations to place a check on the sale of erroneous law books and materials.

Before becoming a law the bill for the act was adopted by the National Assembly and Senate.

The Supreme Court in a suo motu case issued directives for making a law to regulate the publication of law books and materials and their translations to ensure a check on sale of erroneous law books and materials to the public which sometimes lead to glaring consequence and cause loss to either of the parties in litigation.

Resolutions were sought from all four provincial assemblies under Article 144 of Constitution. All provincial assemblies have passed resolutions to this effect.

Under the law, a cell will be established to register and monitor publications of law books and documents.

“A publisher shall not publish any law of Pakistan unless, he is registered with the cell, his proposed publication is reviewed by the cell and the cell has certified that his proposed publication is accurate and updated till the date of issuance of certificate,” the act said.

According to it, the federal government would compile and maintain an updated and accurate version of the laws of Pakistan with translation in Urdu both in paper and electronic form. They would be used to determine the accuracy of the material submitted by a publisher for review under this act.

The law required the federal government and all provincial governments to ensure the safe custody of the gazettes of Pakistan and gazettes of the respective province containing laws of Pakistan concerning the federation or the province and the publications of the updated and accurate versions of the respective laws of Pakistan.

The cell to be established by the federal government under this act will register publishers of laws of Pakistan, regulate the publication of the standard translation of laws, review every proposed publication of a law, issue certificate of accuracy to the effect that the contents of law and update till date of such certification, seize any unauthorised publication of a law which contains errors and destroy the same, impose fines, de-register a publisher or initiate prosecution and ensure that no bookseller sells any publication containing a law of Pakistan which does not bear certificate of accuracy.

The law says any person who publishes a law of Pakistan without registration under this act will be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months and fine which may extend to Rs300,000, but will not be less than Rs200,000.

For appeal, any person aggrieved by an order made by the cell can file an appeal within 15 days of the date of receipt of the order before a supervisory committee and the decision of the supervisory committee will be final.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2016