Passports Act, 1974 — section 7

7. Power of arrest, seizure, etc..—(1) Any police officer not below the rank of Sub Inspector, and any officer of Customs empowered by a general or special order of the Federal Government in this behalf, may arrest without warrant any person who has contravened, or against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has contravened any provision of this Act.

(2)Any police officer or other person authorised in this behalf by the Federal Government may seize in any place any means of transport which he knows or has reason to believe to be the means of transport by which a person has departed from Pakistan in contravention of the provisions of section 3.

(3)Any means of transport seized under sub-section (2) shall be disposed of in accordance with the decision of the court before which the owner, master or person in charge thereof is prosecuted under sub-section (2) of section 5 for a contravention of section 3.

(4)Every officer making an arrest under this section shall, within a period of twenty- four hours of such arrest exclusive of the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court of the nearest Magistrate, take or send the person arrested before a Magistrate having jurisdiction in the case or before the officer incharge of the nearest police station; and thereupon the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Act V of 1898), applicable in respect of a person who, having been arrested without warrant, has been taken or sent before a Magistrate has been taken or sent before a Magistrate or an officer incharge of a police station shall apply to him.