{ "schema_version": "qanun-law-text/1", "id": "pk-code-07206497b01ed619", "title": "Pakistan Fish Inspection and Quality Control Act, 1997", "source_collection": "Federal", "content_kind": "stored_law_text", "content_extent": null, "source_url": "https://pakistancode.gov.pk/alpha/UY2FqaJw1-apaUY2Fqa-apqaZg%3D%3D-sg-jjjjjjjjjjjjj", "version": null, "source_snapshot": null, "legal_status": "not independently verified", "text_quality": "Complete stored UTF-8 TXT file recovered byte-for-byte from owned Drive. Source transcription retained verbatim; legal completeness, OCR accuracy and current consolidation unverified.", "text_sha256": "d34343f71e978fac12afbf4274f7b6beedb56e6506038ba55c935d98862953be", "source_sha256": "d34343f71e978fac12afbf4274f7b6beedb56e6506038ba55c935d98862953be", "text_version_id": "law:pk-code-07206497b01ed619:sha256:d34343f71e978fac12afbf4274f7b6beedb56e6506038ba55c935d98862953be", "quality_flags": [], "encoding": "UTF-8", "text": "Page 1 of 7 \r\n \r\nTHE PAKISTAN FISH INSPECTION AND QUALITY CONTROL \r\nACT, 1997 \r\n \r\n \r\nCONTENTS \r\n \r\n \r\n1 Short title, extent and commencement. \r\n2 Definitions. \r\n3 Registration of fish processing plants, etc. \r\n4 Registration of fish exporters. \r\n5 Constitution and functions of Inspection Committee. \r\n6 Inspection of fish processing plant. \r\n7 Fish Export. \r\n8 Handling of fish and fishery products. \r\n9 Quality evaluation of fish and fishery products. \r\n10 Powers, duties and functions of Fishery Officer. \r\n11 Cognizance of offence. \r\n12 Penalties. \r\n13 Power to search. \r\n14 Seizure and disposal. \r\n15 Revision. \r\n16 Indemnity. \r\n17 Delegation of powers. \r\n18 Power to make rules. \r\n\r\n \r\nPage 2 of 7 \r\nTHE PAKISTAN FISH INSPECTION AND QUALITY CONTROL ACT, 1997 \r\nACT NO. XXXV OF 1997 \r\nAn Act to regulate quality and promote export of fish and fishery products from Pakistan \r\n \r\nWHEREAS it is expedient to regulate quality and promote export of fish and fishery products \r\nand to prevent export of substandard quality of fish and fishery products and for matters connected \r\ntherewith and ancillary thereto; \r\n \r\nIt is hereby enacted as follows:— \r\n \r\n1. Short title, extent and commencement.—(1) This Act may be called the Pakistan Fish \r\nInspection and Quality Control Act, 1997. \r\n \r\n(2) It extends to the whole of Pakistan. \r\n \r\n(3) It shall come into force at once. \r\n \r\n2. Definitions. In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context— \r\n \r\n(a) “certificate of quality and origin ” means a certificate issued by the \r\nDirector­General or an officer authorized by him certifying that the fish is \r\nwholesome and fit for human consumption or for any other purpose specified \r\ntherein; \r\n \r\n(b) “Director­General” means Director­General, Marine Fisheries Department;, \r\n \r\n(c) “export” means export of fish and fishery products from Pakistan by any \r\nmeans to any place outside Pakistan; \r\n \r\n(d) “fish” means all aquatic animals of inland, marine and brackish water origin, \r\nalive or dead, and includes prawns, shrimps, lobsters, crabs, oysters, clams, \r\nscallops, turtles, in salted, unsalted, semi­dried, dried, frozen, preserved, \r\ncured, or canned form and any other aquatic animal or animal product which \r\nthe Director General, Marine Fisheries Department, may by an order declare \r\nto be fish for the purposes of this Act ; \r\n \r\n(e) “fish exporter” means a person engaged in carrying on the business of export \r\nof fish and fishery products and registered with the registration authority; \r\n \r\n(f) “fish inspection” means inspection of fish and fishery products by a Fishery \r\nOfficer for the purpose of assessing the quality of the fish by inspecting \r\nsanitary and hygienic conditions and the physical, chemical and \r\nbacteriological examination of fish and fishery products; \r\n \r\n(g) “fish processing” means cleaning, filleting, icing, packing, canning, freezing, \r\npickling, cooking, drying, semi­drying, salting, chilling, smoking, extraction \r\n \r\nPage 3 of 7 \r\nof oil, conversion into fish­meal or preparing fish in any other manner for \r\nmarketing; \r\n \r\n(h) “Fishery Officer” means an Officer duly authorized by the Federal \r\nGovernment to exercise the powers and perform the functions for carrying out \r\nthe provisions of this Act; \r\n \r\n(i) “Fishery product” means anything originating, produced or made, whether in \r\nwhole or in part from a fish; \r\n \r\n(j) “Inspection Committee” means a committee constituted under section 5; \r\n \r\n(k) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act; \r\n \r\n(l) “processing plant” means an establishment, place or premises where fishes are \r\nprocessed; \r\n \r\n(m) “quality” in respect of fish means a fish or fishery product conforming to the \r\nestablished standards prescribed under this Act; \r\n \r\n(n) “quality control ” means quality assurance of fish and fishery products \r\nconforming to standards prescribed under this Act or the rules made \r\nthereunder; \r\n \r\n(o) “registration” means registration of a fish processing plant under this Act and \r\n“registered” shall be construed accordingly; \r\n \r\n(p) “registration authority ” means a Fishery Officer authorised by the \r\nDirector­General, by an order in writing, to register fish processing plants \r\nunder this Act or the rules made thereunder; \r\n \r\n(q) “rules” means rules made under this Act; and \r\n \r\n(r) “unwholesome” means fish or fishery products that have an offensive or \r\nobjectionable odour, flavour, colour, texture or substance associated with \r\nspoilage. \r\n \r\n3. Registration of fish processing plants, etc.—(1) No fish processing plant shall process \r\nfish and fish products unless it is registered with the registration authority. \r\n \r\n(2) The registration authority may, on receipt of an applica tion from a fish processing plant, \r\non payment of such fees and conditions as may be prescribed, issue a certificate of registration. \r\n \r\n4. Registration of fish exporters. —(1) No person shall export fish or fishery products \r\nunless he is registered with the registration authority. \r\n \r\n(2) The registration authority may, on receipt of an application from a fish processing plant, \r\non payment of such fees and conditions as may be prescribed, issue a certificate of registration. \r\n \r\nPage 4 of 7 \r\n5. Constitution and fun ctions of Inspecti on Committee. —(1) The Federal Government \r\nshall constitute an Inspection Committee consisting of one representative each of the Export \r\nPromotion Bureau, the Marine Fisheries Department and a broad based trade association of fish \r\nprocessing plants. \r\n \r\n(2) The functions of the Committee shall be— \r\n \r\n(a) to conduct a survey, or surveys, of fish processing plants with a view to \r\ndetermining their fitness for registration; \r\n \r\n(b) to hear appeals against orders, decisions, action or omissions of Fishery \r\nOfficers; \r\n \r\n(c) to make recommendations to the Federal Government for the efficient \r\nfunctioning of the industry, the removal of malpractices therein and the \r\nenhancement of exports; and \r\n \r\n(d) to discharge such other functions as may be conferred on it under the rules. \r\n \r\n6. Inspection of fish processing plant. —(1) A Fishery Officer may inspect any fish \r\nprocessing plant to ensure the observance of the provisions of this Act and the rules made \r\nthereunder. \r\n \r\n(2) A Fishery Officer may, without any order from a Magistrate and without a warrant, arrest \r\nany person operating a fish processing plant without a valid registration granted under section 3. \r\n \r\n7. Fish Export. —No person shall process and export or market for export or have in his \r\npossession for export or deal in, any fish or fish products intended for human consumption which are \r\ndecomposed, unwholesome or contaminated with pathogenic organisms. \r\n \r\n8. Handling of fish and fishery products.—No Person who is suffering from leprosy, \r\ntuberculoses, polio or such other contagious diseases as the Government may, by notification in the \r\nofficial Gazette, specify, shall handle, carry or process fish or work in a fish processing and packing \r\nplant or establishment. \r\n \r\n9. Quality evaluation of fish and fishery products. —All fish and fishery products found \r\nto be of sub­standard quality shall be detained by the Fishery Officer and shall be disposed of in such \r\nmanner as may be prescribed. \r\n \r\n10. Powers, duties and functions of Fishery Officer.—Subject to the provisions of this Act, \r\nthe Fishery Officer shall exercise the following powers:­ \r\n \r\n(a) to carry out inspections of plants where fish and fishery products are \r\nprocessed for export; \r\n \r\n(b) to carry out inspection of fish and fishery products for export; \r\n \r\n(c) to register fish processing plants and exporters carrying on fish export \r\nbusiness and issue registration certificates on the recommendation of the \r\n \r\nPage 5 of 7 \r\nInspection Committee; \r\n \r\n(d) to issue certificates of quality and origin for fish and fishery products when \r\nthe quality is found to be satisfactory upon inspection ; \r\n \r\n(e) to detain fish and fi shery products when found to be unwholesome and unfit \r\nfor human consumption upon inspection; and \r\n \r\n(f) to carry on any other functions assigned by the Director­General which may \r\nbe necessary for the successful regulation of quality and promotion of export \r\nof fish and fishery products. \r\n \r\n11. Cognizance of offence.—No Court shall take Cognizance of any offence under this Act, \r\nexcept upon a complaint in writing made by an Officer authorized by the Federal Government in this \r\nbehalf. \r\n \r\n12. Penalties.—(1) Whoever contravenes, or attempts to contravene, any provision of this \r\nAct or the rules shall, without prejudice to any other penalty to which he may be liable, be punished­ \r\n \r\n(i) on a first conviction with fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees; \r\n \r\n(ii) on a second conviction to a fine which may extend to one hundred thousand \r\nrupees; \r\n \r\n(iii) on a third conviction to a fine which may extend to two hundred thousand \r\nrupees; and \r\n \r\n(iv) for any subsequent conviction with imprisonment for a term which may \r\nextend to one year or with fine which may extend to three hundred thousand \r\nrupees. \r\n \r\n(2) No Court inferior to that of a Magistrate of the first class shall try an offence punishable \r\nunder this Act and notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act \r\nV of 1898), it shall be lawful for the Magistrate trying an offence under this Act to pass any sentence \r\nauthorized by this Act. \r\n \r\n(3) Any export of fish or fishery products which is not accompanied by a valid certificate of \r\nquality and origin, shall be detained, confiscated or disposed of by the Marine Fisheries Department, \r\nin such manner as may be prescribed. \r\n \r\n(4) Where the person contravening any provision of this Act or the rules is a company or \r\nother body corporate, every director, manager, or other officer or agent thereof involved in the \r\ncontravention shall be deemed to be guilty of such contravention. \r\n \r\n(5) Whoever attempts to contravene, or abets the contravention of, any provision of this Act \r\nor the rules shall be deemed to have contravene the provisions of this Act or the rules. \r\n \r\n13. Power to search.—Any Fishery Officer may search any fish processing plant or fish \r\n \r\nPage 6 of 7 \r\nconsignment intended for export which he has reason to believe to be not fresh, decomposed, \r\nunwholesome or contaminated. \r\n \r\n14. Seizure and disposal. —(1) If any Fishery Officer has reason to believe that any fish or \r\nfishery product intended for human consumption is decomposed, unwholesome or contaminated \r\nwith pathogenic organisms, he may seize or detain the same and shall, at the time of seizure or \r\ndetention, inform, in writing, the person from whose possession the seizure or detention is made, of \r\nthe grounds for the said action. \r\n \r\n(2) The seized or detained products shall be dealt with in accordance with the decision of the \r\ncourt before which the owner of the processing plant or fish exporter is prosecuted. \r\n \r\n15. Revision.—(1) Any person aggrieved by an order passed by the Inspection Committee \r\nmay apply for revision to the Federal Govern ment within thirty days from the date of issue of such \r\norder and the decision of the Federal Government thereon shall be final. \r\n \r\n(2) The Federal Government may, on receipt of an application under sub­section (1) above, \r\nstay the operation of the order of the Committee till the disposal of the application. \r\n \r\n16. Indemnity.—No suit, prosecution or legal proceedings shall lie against the Federal \r\nGovernment, Marine Fisheries Department, a Fishery Officer or any other person for anything in \r\ngood faith done or intended to be done under this Act or the Rules. \r\n \r\n17. Delegation of powers. —The Federal Government may, by notification in the official \r\nGazette, delegate to the Inspection Committee or the Fishery Officer or any officer or authority, its \r\npowers under this Act. \r\n \r\n18. Power to make rules. —(1) The Federal Government (Marine Fisheries Department) \r\nmay, by notification in the official Gazette, after consultation with the Inspection Committee make \r\nrules for carrying out the purposes of this Act. \r\n \r\n(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing power, such rules \r\nmay provide for all or any of the following matters namely: — \r\n \r\n(a) the procedure of applying for registration; \r\n \r\n(b) the conditions of registration; \r\n \r\n(c) the fee to be charged for registration; \r\n \r\n(d) the fee to be charged for a certificate of quality and origin for export of fish \r\nand fishery products; \r\n \r\n(e) to hear appeals or revisions; \r\n \r\n(f) the procedure for inspection of fish and fishery products; \r\n \r\n(g) prescribing the samples procedure and the manner in which samples of fish \r\nand fishery products are selected for laboratory analysis; \r\n \r\nPage 7 of 7 \r\n \r\n(h) prescribing quality standards for fish and fishery products; \r\n \r\n(i) regulation of handling, processing, packaging, storage and marketing of fish \r\nand fishery products; \r\n \r\n(j) determining disposal procedure for fish and fishery products which do not \r\nconform with the prescribed requirements or are otherwise considered \r\nunwholesome or unsuitable for human consumption; \r\n \r\n(k) the forms of registration and certificates of quality and origin; \r\n \r\n(l) validation period for registered fish processing plants, fish exporters and the \r\ncertificates of quality and origin; and \r\n \r\n(m) any other matter which is to be or may be prescribed in furtherance of the \r\nprovisions of this Act. \r\n \r\n_______________", "passage_offset_convention": "zero-based Unicode code points and UTF8 bytes; end exclusive", "passages": [ { "passage_id": "law:pk-code-07206497b01ed619:sha256:d34343f71e978fac12afbf4274f7b6beedb56e6506038ba55c935d98862953be:chars-0-1730:094d8043ce12e505be43c91f052ae3952ce761464e0d895091a22b07d1e3a820", "character_start": 0, "character_end": 1730, "utf8_byte_start": 0, "utf8_byte_end": 1743, "passage_sha256": "094d8043ce12e505be43c91f052ae3952ce761464e0d895091a22b07d1e3a820", "reader_fragment": "p-0-1730-094d8043ce12e505" }, { "passage_id": "law:pk-code-07206497b01ed619:sha256:d34343f71e978fac12afbf4274f7b6beedb56e6506038ba55c935d98862953be:chars-1730-3496:92c69d085be1c3b278c06ea256767ec7e162f5b553756261850b1a4b6e2b5290", "character_start": 1730, "character_end": 3496, "utf8_byte_start": 1743, "utf8_byte_end": 3559, "passage_sha256": "92c69d085be1c3b278c06ea256767ec7e162f5b553756261850b1a4b6e2b5290", "reader_fragment": "p-1730-3496-92c69d085be1c3b2" }, { "passage_id": "law:pk-code-07206497b01ed619:sha256:d34343f71e978fac12afbf4274f7b6beedb56e6506038ba55c935d98862953be:chars-3496-5281:4205d1cdfdfb15222732d3b0b5d29b5184d8b2b2381215a5ff7d251f6db0beca", "character_start": 3496, "character_end": 5281, "utf8_byte_start": 3559, "utf8_byte_end": 5392, "passage_sha256": "4205d1cdfdfb15222732d3b0b5d29b5184d8b2b2381215a5ff7d251f6db0beca", "reader_fragment": "p-3496-5281-4205d1cdfdfb1522" }, { "passage_id": "law:pk-code-07206497b01ed619:sha256:d34343f71e978fac12afbf4274f7b6beedb56e6506038ba55c935d98862953be:chars-5281-6976:86e9251dbfc5a381a9f918a0fd89d71c5f77e84a6c9043e0bb7391659e55b7e2", "character_start": 5281, "character_end": 6976, "utf8_byte_start": 5392, "utf8_byte_end": 7100, "passage_sha256": "86e9251dbfc5a381a9f918a0fd89d71c5f77e84a6c9043e0bb7391659e55b7e2", "reader_fragment": "p-5281-6976-86e9251dbfc5a381" }, { "passage_id": "law:pk-code-07206497b01ed619:sha256:d34343f71e978fac12afbf4274f7b6beedb56e6506038ba55c935d98862953be:chars-6976-8758:44a302dc60906918787d813960047436659777a8695fbafdb9e124362cedec8c", "character_start": 6976, "character_end": 8758, "utf8_byte_start": 7100, "utf8_byte_end": 8899, "passage_sha256": "44a302dc60906918787d813960047436659777a8695fbafdb9e124362cedec8c", "reader_fragment": "p-6976-8758-44a302dc60906918" }, { "passage_id": "law:pk-code-07206497b01ed619:sha256:d34343f71e978fac12afbf4274f7b6beedb56e6506038ba55c935d98862953be:chars-8758-10470:2fbe0ed6cb4ecad358fb50136d8661e4cd0658bc5bf4e50aa4d795ecb3e492c3", "character_start": 8758, "character_end": 10470, "utf8_byte_start": 8899, "utf8_byte_end": 10616, "passage_sha256": "2fbe0ed6cb4ecad358fb50136d8661e4cd0658bc5bf4e50aa4d795ecb3e492c3", "reader_fragment": "p-8758-10470-2fbe0ed6cb4ecad3" }, { "passage_id": "law:pk-code-07206497b01ed619:sha256:d34343f71e978fac12afbf4274f7b6beedb56e6506038ba55c935d98862953be:chars-10470-12259:29b9b7ac80a646e22efdde1c890d5604fdbf04af392ab8fd00542a513a941677", "character_start": 10470, "character_end": 12259, "utf8_byte_start": 10616, "utf8_byte_end": 12416, "passage_sha256": "29b9b7ac80a646e22efdde1c890d5604fdbf04af392ab8fd00542a513a941677", "reader_fragment": "p-10470-12259-29b9b7ac80a646e2" }, { "passage_id": "law:pk-code-07206497b01ed619:sha256:d34343f71e978fac12afbf4274f7b6beedb56e6506038ba55c935d98862953be:chars-12259-13664:9fccde9018714dbce38d6ed27ded07253f18407f5c09212e139a023f4820089d", "character_start": 12259, "character_end": 13664, "utf8_byte_start": 12416, "utf8_byte_end": 13835, "passage_sha256": "9fccde9018714dbce38d6ed27ded07253f18407f5c09212e139a023f4820089d", "reader_fragment": "p-12259-13664-9fccde9018714dbc" } ] }