ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has established a national digital standard for legislation after the Ministry of Law and Justice endorsed the Pakistan Digital Legislation Profile (PDLP), a Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) initiative aimed at making laws easier to access, search and understand while supporting simpler regulatory compliance.
The PDLP adapts the international Akoma Ntoso standard to Pakistan’s legal system, providing a common digital structure through which individual legal provisions, amendments, references and links between different legal instruments can be identified, searched and electronically connected.
The profile has been developed through the ingestion and structuring of approximately 980 primary laws of Pakistan and was endorsed by the Ministry of Law and Justice following detailed consultations.
PDA and the Ministry of Law and Justice now plan to progressively ingest all of Pakistan’s laws and legal instruments into the PDLP platform, with the aim of creating a consolidated digital record covering both historical and current legislation.
“The Pakistan Digital Legislation Profile is a foundational reform for how citizens and businesses interact with the law,” said Dr Sohail Munir, Chairperson of the Pakistan Digital Authority.
“By creating a common digital structure for legislation, it will help make legal information easier to access, regulatory requirements easier to understand, and government processes more transparent and predictable.”
Easier Digital Access to Pakistan’s Laws
For citizens, the initiative is designed to improve how legal information can be accessed and searched. Laws are currently published across different websites, documents and repositories.
Structuring legislation through a common digital standard can allow future digital services to connect laws with their amendments, related rules and relevant authorities, making it easier for users to navigate the legal framework.
For government institutions, PDLP provides a common digital structure for laws, rules and regulatory instruments across different bodies. This can make it easier to trace legal obligations, identify duplication and outdated provisions, and support more transparent and evidence-based regulatory reforms.
PDLP Aims to Simplify Business Compliance
For businesses, the initiative is aimed at creating a clearer and more predictable regulatory environment.
As the government moves to simplify overlapping or outdated requirements, businesses could face fewer unnecessary compliance steps, lower administrative costs and greater clarity over the rules applicable to them.
The initiative is intended to reduce regulatory friction and make it easier to start, operate and expand businesses in Pakistan.
The digital legislation framework can directly support reforms in areas including business registration, licensing, taxation, corporate compliance, competition and energy regulation, as well as other sectors where citizens and businesses interact with regulatory authorities.
SBP, FBR, SECP Among Regulators Consulted
Following the endorsement of the profile, PDA and the Ministry of Law and Justice have begun engaging regulatory institutions on practical applications of Machine-Readable Legislation.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) and Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) have also participated in regulators’ consultations to examine how the approach can be applied across different regulatory environments.
The initiative forms part of PDA’s work under the National Digital Master Plan and will now move forward through regulatory use cases, further validation and phased adoption across government.
The endorsement establishes a foundation for developing a more digitally connected legal and regulatory system as part of Pakistan’s broader digital reform programme.