ISLAMABAD, May 6: In a major legal move to attract foreign investors to Pakistan, the four provincial high courts — instead of lower courts — get original jurisdiction to adjudicate foreign investment disputes under a new bill passed by the National Assembly. The Foreign Private Investment (Promotion and Protection) Bill, passed by the lower house on Thursday, sets a maximum of six months for a high court to give its final judgement, which will be appealable before the Supreme Court.

Amending the Foreign Private Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act of 1976, it provides that all proceedings now pending before any court or forum other than the Supreme Court will be transferred to the high court concerned.

The bill, which the government says is designed to raise foreign investors’ confidence in Pakistan’s judicial process, must be passed also by the Senate to become law.

The main amendments sought through the bill, which was piloted by Privatization and Investment Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, are contained in three sections inserted after section 9 of the 1976 Act.

One new section says a high court “shall exercise exclusive civil jurisdiction” to adjudicate and settle “all matters related to, arising from or under or in connection with” the 1976 Act and those transferred to it under the new law.

Another requires a high court — with “all the powers vested in the civil court” — to follow the procedure “as nearly as possible” as provided in the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) of 1908, with a proviso that it may, in its discretion and having regard to the facts of a case, follow a CPC-provided summary procedure.

The third section about transferred cases requires a high court to proceed from the stage at which proceedings had reached immediately before the transfer and said the court would not be bound to recall and rehear any witness and may act on the evidence already recorded or produced before the forum from which the proceedings were transferred.