The Prevention and Control of Human Trafficking Ordinance was promulgated in October 2002. The Ordinance is a comprehensive law designed to meet Pakistan's obligations under various international treaties on trafficking in persons (including relevant provisions of the CEDAW) as well as treaties to which Pakistan is likely to become party in the future such as the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Specially Females and Children Supplementing the International Convention against Transnational Organised Crime. The salient features of the ordinance are:

a) It contains a comprehensive definition of “human trafficking” - obtaining, securing, selling, purchasing, recruiting, detaining, harboring or receiving a person, notwithstanding his implicit or explicit consent, by the use of coercion, kidnapping, abduction, or by giving or receiving any payment or benefit, or sharing or receiving a share of such person's subsequent transportation out of or into Pakistan by any means whatsoever for any of the purposes mentioned in…” This definition is further strengthened by a separate definition of “coercion” -

the use of force, violence, physical restraint, deception, fraud or acts or circumstances not necessarily including physical force but calculated to have the same effect, such as the credible threat of force or infliction of serious harm”. It prohibits human trafficking for any reason whatsoever including labour, entertainment or prostitution.

b) Two persons acting together to commit a crime falling under the purview of the Ordinance are sufficient to qualify as an “organized criminal group” thus meriting stricter punishment. This definition is narrower than that contained in the Convention against Transnational Organised Crime according to which three or more person constitute a criminal group.