ISLAMABAD, Oct 25: The president on Friday amended the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) providing that dishonouring of a cheque would now be a criminal offence, and the person responsible could be sent to jail for three years.

The law, however, provides that if the person accused of giving a bogus cheque can establish that it is not dishonoured because of his fault but of the bank, he will be exonerated.

The ordinance, titled ‘Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance 2002’, provides that a new Section 489(F) should be inserted in the PPC 1860.

The section reads:” Whoever dishonestly issues a cheque towards repayment of loan fulfilment of an obligation which is dishonoured on presentation shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to three years or with fine, or with both, unless he can establish, for which the burden of proof shall rest on him, that he had made arrangements with his bank to ensure that the cheque would be honoured and the bank was at fault in not honouring the cheque.”

The law also amends Section 32 of the Criminal Procedure Code 1898, providing that amount of fine provided in clause (a) should be increased from Rs15,000 to Rs45,000 and in clause (b), the fine of Rs5,000 should be read as Rs15,000 while in clause (c), the amount of the fine should be Rs3,000 instead of Rs1,000.

Culture Heritage Act 1994: The president on Friday also promulgated a National Fund for Cultural Heritage Amendment Ordinance 2002. The law has amended Section 6, Act VIII of 1994.

It says that in the National Fund for Cultural Heritage Act 1994 (VIII of 1994), in Section 6, in sub-section (1) for clauses (1) to (vii) following shall be substituted: Federal Minister-in-charge of Ministry of Minorities, Culture, Sports, Tourism, and Youth Affairs, Patron/chairman; Secretary, Ministry of Minorities, Culture, Sports, Tourism and Youth Affairs, member/ treasurer; Joint Secretary (Culture) Ministry of Minorities, Sport, Tourism, and Youth Affairs, member/secretary; Financial Adviser (Culture), Ministry of Finance; DG Federal Department of Archaeology and Museums, member; and 10 eminent professionals in the field of Archeology and National Heritage from Private Sector nominated by Federal Government.