Darab Khan

This paper provides an insight into the incumbent legal regime and instruments in force with regard to the issue of human trafficking in Pakistan. It provides basic and summarized overview to the laws prevailing regarding human trafficking and smuggling in persons.

A contract is an agreement to do or refrain from doing a particular thing. A person who fails to discharge his obligation will give the other contractual party a right to insist on the actual performance or to obtain compensation for non-performance of such contract. Specific performance of a contract is its actual execution. Specific performance consists in contracting party's exact fulfilment of the obligation which he has assumed in his doing or omitting the very act which he has undertaken not to do. However specific performance is a remedy available at the discretion of the court. A court won't decree specific performance merely because it is lawful, there has to be a great deal of influencing factors which a court must take into account and then apply its mind and juridical discretion to either grant or refuse such specific performance. Specific relief Act provides guiding principles and grounds for when specific performance may be granted and refused. After thorough perusal of the sections under the Act, one can deduce the following principles for when might specific performance be given and when refused. Cases where court may grant specific performance of the contract: a. Where compensation is not an adequate relief The court may grant specific performance to the plaintiff where it is of the opinion that compensation as a remedy for breach of the contract would not be a sufficient relief. Where plaintiff would be at disadvantage if specific performance of the contract was not granted. Hence the court may order specific performance. A contracts to sell and B contracts to buy a certain number of railway shares of a particular description. A refuses to complete the sale. B may compel A specifically to perform this agreement, for the shares are limited and not always available in market. b. Where compensation is undeterminable and there is no standard for ascertaining actual damage caused by nonperformance of the act agreed to be done. A agrees to buy and B agrees to sell a painting by a dead painter. B refuses. A can compel specific performance. c. When the act agreed to be done is in the performance of a trust A assigned B as a trustee for property to be used for benefit of C. B misappropriates the property for himself. C can compel specific performance of the trust and its objective. d. Where compensation cannot be procured i.e. defendant not in a position to grant compensation for non-performance of the contract.