ZAVER PETROLEUM CORPORATION (PVT.) LIMITED vs SAIF ENERGY LIMITED Ss — 2025 CLD 695 ISLAMABAD

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ZAVER PETROLEUM CORPORATION (PVT.) LIMITED VS SAIF ENERGY LIMITED Ss. 3 & 6---Contract Act (IX of 1872), S.28, Exception-1---Foreign seat of arbitration---Party autonomy, principle of---Scope---Domestic and foreign arbitration---Party autonomy is considered as cornerstone of arbitration---There is no prohibition on two Pakistani parties from opting for a foreign seat of arbitration---Foreign seated arbitration and award rendered in such arbitration attracts provisions of Recognition and Enforcement (Arbitration Agreements and Foreign Arbitral Awards) Act, 2011 which is premised on the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards ("New York Convention")---Geneva Convention on execution of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1927 ("the Geneva Convention") was expressly limited to agreements to arbitrate between parties that were nationals of different contracting States but this is not so under the New York Convention---All awards, under New York Convention, which may arise out of arbitrations seated in countries that are signatories to that Convention have to be treated as foreign awards---Once parties consciously agreed to a foreign seated arbitration and for arbitration agreement to be governed by English law, it was no longer open to any of them to contend that agreement was void or that award rendered in such arbitration was unenforceable under the provisions of Recognition and Enforcement (Arbitration Agreements and Foreign Arbitral Awards) Act, 2011---Provision of Exception-1 to S. 28 of Contract Act, 1872, does not distinguish between domestic and foreign arbitration---Right of parties to have recourse to legal action is not excluded by agreement---Parties are only required to have their disputes adjudicated by having the same referred to arbitration---Merely because agreement provides for a foreign seated arbitration cannot by itself be enough to nullify arbitration agreement when parties have with their eyes open willingly entered into the agreement---Exception to S. 28 of Contract Act, 1872 does not distinguish between domestic and foreign arbitration---Exception to S. 28 of Contract Act, 1872 expressly excepts arbitration from the clutches of S. 28 of Contract Act, 1872 which is an express approval to party autonomy which in turn is the very basis of Recognition and Enforcement (Arbitration Agreements and Foreign Arbitral Awards) Act, 2011.

ZAVER PETROLEUM CORPORATION (PVT.) LIMITED vs SAIF ENERGY LIMITED Ss — 2025 CLD 695 ISLAMABAD

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