PAKISTAN ARMS (AMENDMENT)
ACT, 1997
A Bill further to amend the Pakistan Arms Ordinance, 1965
[The Gazette of Pakistan, Extraordinary, Part III, 27th August, 1998]
Whereas it is expedient further to amend the Pakistan Arm Ordinance, 1965 (West Pakistan Ordinance XX of 1965), for the purpose hereinafter appearing;
It is hereby enacted as follows: —
1. Short title and commencement. — (1) This Act may be called the Pakistan Arms (Amendment) Act, 1997.
(2) It shall come into force at once.
2. Substitution of Section 14-A, Ordinance XX of 1965. — In the Pakistan Arms Ordinance, 1965 (XX of 1965) for Section 14-A, the following shall be substituted, namely: —
“14-A, Trial of certain offences. — (1) Subject to sub-Section (2) and any other law for the time being in force, an offence punishable under Section 13, Section 13-A or Section 14 shall not be tried by a Court lower than the Court of the Magistrate of the first class:
(2) Where any evidence relevant to prove the commission of an offence under Section 13, Section 13-A or Section 14 is relevant to prove another offence under Section 13, Section 13-A or Section 14 and the other offence shall be triable by the same court, and where either of such offences is triable by a special court all such offences shall be triable by the special court and where two or more of such offences are triable by two or more different classes of Courts all such offences shall be triable by the court of higher class.
(3) The provision of sub-section (2) shall apply to all cases pending in any court immediately before the commencement of the Pakistan Arms (Amendment) Act, 1997, and all such cases shall stand transferred to the court by which they are triable in accordance with the provisions of the said sub-section.
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STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS
Previously when an offence triable by a Court of Sessions was committed with an unlicensed weapon the said offence and the offence under the Arms Ordinance were tried by the Court of Sessions. However, since the insertion of Section 14-A in the Arms Ordinance, 1965, in 1976, the cases relating to the possession of unlicensed weapons are being tried in a forum different from that in which the case relating to other offence is tried.
2. Instances have come to notice where the case relating to unlicensed possession or arms has been tried by a Magistrate when the case relating the offence in the commission of which the arm was used was pending before the Court of Session. In such a case finding recorded by the Magistrate particularly of acquittal operates prejudicially to the prosecution case before the Court of Sessions.
3. The Bill thus seeks to amend the Pakistan Arms Ordinance, 1965, to suppress the mischief prevailing in the law b substituting Section 14-A of the Arms Ordinance, 1965.
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