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The Committee notes that no report has been received from the Government. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the following matters raised in its previous direct request:

Article 1(a) of the Convention. The Committee previously referred to sections 4, 7 and 8 of the Sedition and Undesirable Publications Ordinance, 1940, under which various offences related to seditious words or publications and prohibited publications are punishable by imprisonment involving compulsory labour. It noted the Government’s repeated indications in its reports that there had been no cases of practical application of the abovementioned sections.

The Committee has noted the Government’s indication in its latest report received in September 2001 that the abovementioned Ordinance had been repealed and replaced by the Seditious and Undesirable Publications Act, 1968 (No. 16). It has also noted that section 5(1) and (2) of this Act, as well as sections 6(4) and 8(5), read in conjunction with section 12(1) of the same Act, contain provisions similar to those of the 1940 Ordinance referred to above, making various offences related to seditious acts or publications and prohibited publications punishable by imprisonment involving compulsory labour. The Committee requests the Government to supply information on any cases of practical application of these provisions, including copies of relevant court decisions.