How to cite SCMR (and PLD, PLJ, PCrLJ): a quick guide

A Pakistani law report citation encodes four facts: the reporter, the year of the volume, the court, and the starting page. 'PLD 1988 SC 416' therefore means: All-Pakistan Legal Decisions, the 1988 volume, Supreme Court, beginning at page 416 — the celebrated Benazir Bhutto federation-assembly dissolution case.

The main reporters

PLD (Pakistan Legal Decisions) is the most-cited private reporter and uses the year-court-page pattern: PLD 1958 SC 533 (State v. Dosso). SCMR (Supreme Court Monthly Review) is organised by year and page without a court token, since it reports the Supreme Court only: 2017 SCMR 1132. Other working reporters follow the PLD pattern — PCrLJ for criminal, MLD for civil/criminal miscellany, CLC and CLD for civil law, PLC for service, and YLR for newer high-court material.

Pinpoints

Cite a specific proposition by paragraph or page: 'PLD 1988 SC 416 at 512' or, in modern practice, at the paragraph number of the report. A pinpoint is what turns a citation into an argument — it shows the court exactly where the ratio sits, which is why SanadAI attaches paragraph pinpoints to every cited judgment.

Parallel citations

The same judgment is often reported in two reporters — e.g., a Supreme Court ruling in both PLD and SCMR. Give the citation your bench treats as authoritative; PLD first is the common convention, with the SCMR parallel cite added if the point is contested.

SanadAI's citation search understands these forms directly — paste 'PLD 1996 SC 324' or '2024 SCMR 123' into the research box and it resolves the judgment by keyword match on the reporter citation.