Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
Cracking
n. A gerrymandering technique in which a geographically concentrated political or racial group that is large enough to constitute a district's dominant force is broken up by district lines and dispersed throughout two or more districts. Cf. PACKING; STACKING (2).
Rack
n. Hist. An instrument of torture on which a person was slowly stretched, formerly used to interrogate someone charged with a crime.
Racket
n. 1. An organized criminal activity; esp., the extortion of money by threat or violence. 2. A dishonest or fraudulent scheme or business.
Racketeer
n. A person who engages in racketeering. - racketeer, ub.
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act
A law designed to attack organized criminal activity and preserve marketplace integrity by investigating, controlling, and prosecuting persons who participate or conspire to participate in racketeering. ( Enacted in 1970, the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) applies only to activity involving interstate or foreign commerce. 18 USCA ยงยง 1961-1968. Since then, many states have adopted laws (sometimes called "little RICO" acts) based on the federal statute. The federal and most state RICO acts provide for enforcement not only by criminal prosecution but also by civil lawsuit, in which the plaintiff can sue for treble damages.
Racketeering
n. 1. A system of organized crime traditionally involving the extortion of money from businesses by intimidation, violence, or other illegal methods. 2. A pattern of illegal activity (such as bribery, extortion, fraud, and murder) carried out as part of an enterprise (such as a crime syndicate) that is owned or controlled by those engaged in the illegal activity. ( The modern sense (sense 2) derives from the federal RICO statute, which greatly broadened the term's original sense to include such activities as mail fraud, securities fraud, and the collection of illegal gambling debts.
bracket creep
The process by which inflation or increased income pushes individuals into higher tax brackets.
bracket system
A system for collecting a sales tax based on an index providing for a graduated payment depending on the purchase price of the item, the purpose being fourfold: (1) to avoid having the seller collect a tax less than one cent; (2) to avoid requiring the state to figure the exact amount of tax on each sale; (3) to allow the seller to have a ready means for fixing the tax to be collected; and (4) to allow the state to collect about the right amount of tax. 0 This system may be provided for either by statute or by administrative regulation.
fast-tracking
n. A court's method of accelerating the disposition of cases in an effort to clear its docket. 0 For example, a judge might order that all discovery must be finished within 90 days, and that trial is set for 30 days later. -fast-track, ub. See ROCKET DOCKET.
pattern of racketeering activity.
Two or more related criminal acts that amount to, or pose a threat of, continued criminal activity. ( This phrase derives from the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. See RACKETEERING.
rack-rent
n. Rent equal to or nearly equal to the full annual value of the property; excessively or unreasonably high rent. - rack-rent, ub.
tax bracket
A categorized level of income subject to a particular tax rate under federal or state law <28% tax bracket>.
zero-bracket amount
A tax deduction formerly available to all individual taxpayers, regardless of whether they itemized their deductions. ( In 1944 this was replaced by the standard deduction. - Abbr. ZBA. See standard deduction under DEDUCTION. zero-coupon bond See BOND (3).