Legal Updates

• Grounds For Judicial Divorce
  Grounds on which a woman may seek khula include:
• Desertion by husband for four years,
  Failure to maintain for two yearsHusband contracting a polygamous marriage in contravention of established legal procedures
  Husband’s imprisonment for seven years,
  Husband’s failure to perform marital obligations for three years,
  Husband’s continued impotence from the time of the marriage,
  Husband’s insanity for two years or his serious illness,
  Wife’s exercise of her option of puberty if she was contracted into marriage by any guardian before age of 16 and repudiates the marriage before the age of 18 (as long as the marriage was not consummated),
• Husband’s crauelty (including physical or another mistreatment, unequal treatment of co-wives), and
• Any other ground recognized as valid for the dissolution of marriage under Muslim law.

• A registered alien card holder may avail following benefits in Pakistan
• Travel within the country except restricted areas;
• apply in any private education institutions at his/her own expenses;
• apply for utility connections;
• apply for registration of vehicles;
• apply for driving license;
• open a bank account with any bank in Pakistan, subject to the condition that registered foreigner shall only open an account within the city of his/her residence;
• use the card for establishing and proving his/her identity anywhere in Pakistan;
• get a cellular mobile connection;
• apply for work permit to seek private employment or start business subject to payment all taxes, cess, rates etc. as per law of the land;
• shall have permission to stay in Pakistan during the validity of the card;
• settle in any city within Pakistan as indicated in his/her card; and
• shift in any city within Pakistan after intimating to the Authority within the validity period of the card and modify his/her address on the card accordingly.

• Registration of NGO in Pakistan:
• 1. Name of the NGO and brief objects/purpose. 
• 2. Memorandum of Association as well as Article of Association of the proposed NGO signed by Office Bearers / Executive Members and General Body Members.
• 3. The proposed NGO should have minimum 07 office bearers.
• 4. Complete personal profiles of Office Bearers / Executive Members and General Body Members.
• 5. Complete office address telephone, fax number, email address and lease agreement / ownership proof of the office  
• 6. Mobile numbers and email addresses of all the Office Bearers / Executive Members. 
• Contact us for registration of NGO in Pakistan

• Provident fund is a very common retirement plan to benefit the employees, which is contributory in nature and yields a feeling of participation in employees.
• The establishment settles the provident fund in form of Trust, required to be registered with the concerned sub-registrar for getting the status of an independent bod

• There are three types of provident fund, which are known as; Statutory Provident Fund: Which are set up under the Provident Fund Act, 1925 and is maintained by Government, semi-government organizations, local authorities and other such institutions.
• Payments from such funds does not need recognitions from the Commissioner Inland Revenue and are exempted from tax. Recognized Provident Fund: Which is recognized by Commissioner Inland Revenue under the sixth schedule of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001.
• This type of Provident fund is maintained by private sector or organizations. Payments from such provident funds are exempted from Income Tax.
• Unrecognized Provident Fund: No exemptions are available but there is no yearly taxability. Employer’s Contributions and interest thereon will be taxable at the time of payments to the employees only

• AMENDING YOUR INCOME TAX RETURN & HOW IT WORKS
• For almost any kind of error, know that it is fixable. You can file a revised return there are two possibilities:
• 1. You need to apply for revision and must request a commissioner to allow you a correction, describe the reason for revision along with documentary evidence of errors (if any)
• 2. Second, if your correction leads to higher income, there is no need to write a revision application to the commissioner. Simply revise your tax return.

• LAWS AND REGULATIONS TO REGISTER NGO IN PAKISTAN
  The laws regulating the business and framework of NGO and its registration is different from entity that works for profit in Pakistan. NGO can be registered under different’s law and can function in consonance to the different set of provisions provided for in those laws. Different laws under which NGO can be registered in Pakistan are as follow:
  1. The Companies Act, 2017
  2. The Voluntary Social Welfare Agencies (Registration & Control) Ordinance, 1961
  3. The Societies Registration Act, 1860
  4. The Trust Act, 1882

• DOCUMENTS REQUIRED FOR NGO REGISTRATION UNDER SOCIETIES ACT 1860
  • The Memorandum of Association
  • The Articles of Association
  • Attested Cnic copies of all members of organization
  • The 1st minute of meeting of Members of Society
  • Registered address, Correspondence email address, Correspondence telephone and website address of Society.
  • Application for registration must be given on Letterhead accompanied by prescribed forms available at office of Registrar Societies.
  • The office bearers list with mobile number signed by each office bearer
  • Members list of Society along with contact numbers, valid email addressess of all members
  • Property papers or lease agreement of the office premises

• DOCUMENT REQUIRED FOR NGO REGISTRATION UNDER THE TRUST ACT, 1882

• When Gratuity becomes payable?
• The gratuity fund is to be paying at the end of the service term if:
• The employee has resigned.
• The employer has sacked the employee on any grounds apart from misconduct.
• (If the worker is found guilty of misbehaving and violation of Code of Conduct, then the employer is not compelled to pay any Gratuity).
• The employee has expired.
• The employee has retired or is eligible for superannuation.

• Process of registering a patent

• Legal due diligence seeks to examine the legal basis of a transaction, for example to ensure that a target business holds or can exercise the intellectual property rights that are crucial to the future success of the company.

• What is Cyber Harassment?
• Cyber–harassment usually pertains to unconsented conduct, such as threatening or harassing email/instant messages, or to blog entries or websites dedicated solely to tormenting an individual. 
• Harassment does not include constitutionally protected activity or conduct that serves a legitimate purpose, i.e., free speech.

•  For the Income Tax, there is a provision of Section 170 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 which allows the tax payer, who has paid tax in excess of the amount which the taxpayer is properly chargeable under the Ordinance may apply to the Commissioner for the refund of the excess amount.

•  Income tax returns are the forms in which assessees file informationabouttheir Income and tax thereon before the Income Tax Department. If anyone files a belated return, he / she would not allowed to carry forward certain losses.
• The result of all this is that you’re required to file a tax return every year. Through this process, it’s determined whether you owe additional taxes beyond what you’ve already paid to the federal government, or if you’re owed a refund of the taxes you’ve already paid.

The definition of ‘geographical indication’ covers agricultural goods, natural goods or manufactured or produced goods of a particular territory, region or locality of certain quality, reputation or other characteristic of the goods or ingredients or components essentially attributable to its geographical origin. Further, GIs for manufactured goods cover activities relating to the production, processing or preparation of the goods in a specific territory.

Labour Law in Pakistan is very comprehensive and contains several Ordinances, Acts, Rules & Regulations and all other statutes relating to Industrial, Commercial and Labour Establishments which are widely scattered and inaccessible statutes. Our Law Firm has the main object to provide the legal services concerning these Labour Laws to the Employers and the Employees for the smooth running of the business in order to achieve the target of higher productively, reasonable profits and better wages.

Modaraba or Mudarabah is a special kind of partnership where one partner gives money to another for investing it in a commercial enterprise. The investment comes from the first partner who is called “rabb-ul-mal”, while the management and work is an exclusive responsibility of the other, who is called “mudarib” and the profits generated are shared in a predetermined ratio.

Direct taxes are the kind of taxes whose burden is borne by the person on whom the tax is levied while indirect taxes are the kind of taxes the burden of which is always born by the end consumers and not the seller/importer of the supply (the entities on whom the tax is levied). The distinction between the two is laid down and guarded by the statutes and any shift of burden from the purchaser to the manufacturer or vice versa is deemed to be unlawful and is guarded by the statutes.

 Brokerage company’s prime role is to act as a middleman that connects buyers and sellers for facilitating a business transaction. Brokerage companies typically receive compensation by means of commissions or fees that are charged once the transaction has been made successfully. In these days, the compensation might be paid by the exchange or by the customer, or in some cases both.

Ali & Haseeb Law Associates tax practice brings with it over decades of experience in dealing with the complexities of Pakistan’s Taxation system. Our tax experts are adept at finding answers to business problems across varied sectors, as well as objectively analysing solutions proposed by others.

Ali & Haseeb Law Associates provides comprehensive legal services to non-profit organizations and associations in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. We provide services to businesses, institutions, educational, social, religious, individuals and families seeking to accomplish non-profit objectives. In Pakistan there are numbers of laws for registration of non-profit organizations including the prominent Acts and Ordinances as The Societies Registration Act, 1860, The Trusts Act, 1882, Registration of non-profit Companies under section 42 of the Companies Ordinance, 1984, The Co-operative Societies Act, 1925, Trade Organisations Ordinance, 2007, Non-Profit Public Benefit Organisations (Governance and Support) Act, 2003, Mussalman Waqf Act, 1923, Charitable Endowments Act, 1923.

Arbitration under the 1940 Act is conducted under the judicial oversi and supervision of the ‘civil courts’. Under section 2(c) of the 1940 Act a civil court is taken to mean a civil court having jurisdiction to decide the Question forming the subject matter of the reference if the same had been the subject matter of a suit.

The law applicable to arbitration proceedings is normally the law of the arbitration agreement, as agreed by the parties. The courts have held that where the law of the main contract is Pakistani law but the arbitration is taking place outside Pakistan, it is the law of the seat of the arbitration that governs the procedure and the proceedings of a foreign arbitration and Pakistani courts would not exercise any jurisdiction in this respect.

1. Income Tax
   
2. The minimum salary eligible for income tax has been increased to Rs. 1.2 million as compared to Rs. 0.6 million to facilitate the salaried class.
3. Income exempted for Association of Persons (AOP), Business Individuals has been increased to Rs. 0.6 million from Rs. 0.4 million
4. Income tax on Behbood certificates, Pensioners’ account certificates have been decreased to 5% from 10%.
5. Fixed income and sales tax to be charged from small retailers. This tax will be collected through electricity bills. Amount Rs. 3-10K.
6. Initial 100% depreciation allowed for Industrial units as compared to 50%.
7. Properties having a value of Rs. 25 million will have to pay 1% income tax on rental income, which will be equal to 5% of the fair amount of the property. This tax will not be applicable to a personal residence.