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CHAPTER 16
EXTRADITION AND FOREIGN JURISDICTION

(CRIMINAL COURTS)

PART C -- JURISDICTION OF CRIMINAL COURTS IN REGARD TO OFFENCES COMMITTED OUTSIDE PAKISTAN

*[1. Persons liable to be tried.- Section 188 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, renders citizens of Pakistan and servants of the State liable to be tried in Pakistan for offences committed beyond the limits of Pakistan in certain cases.]

2. ***[Omitted].

3. ***[Omitted].

*[4. Liability of citizens of Pakistan.- By section 188 of the Code of Criminal Procedure a citizen of Pakistan is liable to be dealt with by the Pakistan Courts in Pakistan for any offence committed by him in any place whatever beyond the limits of Pakistan as if it had been committed at any place in Pakistan at which he may be found and he is liable to be punished for it, if it is an offence under the Pakistan Penal Code, by force of section 3 of the latter Code.]

5. ***[Omitted].

6. Trial permisible only on the certificate of Political Agent or sanction of Government.-- The *[first] proviso to section 188 of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires that no charge as to any such offence as is referred to in that section shall be inquired into in Pakistan, without a certificate of the Political Agent, if there be one, for the territory in which the offence is alleged to have been committed. If there is no Political Agent, the sanction of the Provincial Government is necessary.

7. Even inquiry not permissible without Certificate.-- The aforesaid proviso does not merely prohibit a trial upon a charge framed after an inquiry, but even an inquiry into the accusation in the absence of a certificate, when requisite. The section itself, however, still leaves a Court competent to issue process, such as a summons or a warrant, or to take any other step which is merely preliminary to an inquiry.

8. ***[Omitted].

9. ***[Omitted].

*[10. Court to record a finding about nationality of offender and insert it in charge.- It should be noted that a Magistrate is not (1) at liberty to shirk an inquiry into the nationality of an accused person merely because it may appear to him a question of nicety or difficulty; and (2) competent to dispense with the enforcement of the law and absolve a citizen of Pakistan from the penal consequences of an offence, prima facie established against him merely because the offence was not committed within the limits of Pakistan.]

11. ***[Omitted].

12. Special rule of evidence.-- Section 189 contains a special rule of evidence for inquiries and trials under section 188. The object is to render admissible evidence taken before Courts which are not Criminal Courts of Pakistan, in order to supply evidence which might not be otherwise procurable.


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