These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) govern your access to and use of the website at www.arspakistan.pk and its pages (the “Website”), which is operated by Ardent Research Solutions (Pvt.) Ltd. (“ARS”, “we”, “us” or “our”), a private limited company incorporated in Pakistan with its office at 48 Nazim-ud-din Road, F-7/4, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
By accessing or using the Website, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to them, you must not use the Website. If you use the Website on behalf of an organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to accept these Terms on its behalf.
Please read in particular
Our publications are research and analysis. They are not investment, financial, legal, tax or other professional advice, and should not be relied on as such (section 3). You may read, download, print, share and quote them for non-commercial purposes with proper attribution, but republication, commercial use and use to train artificial intelligence systems require our written permission (sections 6 and 7). Our liability is limited (section 13).
1.Definitions
In these Terms, “Content” means all material made available on or through the Website, including text, data, tables, charts, graphics, images, the design and arrangement of the Website, and the Publications; “Publications” means our Research Reports, Policy Briefs, ARS Insights, Data Briefs, Special Reports and any other research output we publish, in any format; and “you” means the person accessing or using the Website and, where relevant, the organisation on whose behalf that person acts.
2.Changes to the Website and these Terms
We may amend these Terms at any time by publishing a revised version on the Website, with its effective date. The revised Terms apply from that date to any use of the Website after it, so please check this page from time to time. We may also change, suspend or withdraw any part of the Website or any Content at any time, without notice.
3.Nature of our Content: no advice
The Content is provided for general information and research purposes only. It does not constitute, and must not be relied on as, investment, financial, legal, tax, accounting or other professional advice, and it does not take into account the objectives, circumstances or needs of any particular person or organisation.
Nothing in the Content is an offer, solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security, investment or other financial product, or to pursue any particular transaction or strategy. In publishing the Content, ARS is not acting as an investment adviser, broker, dealer or legal practitioner to you.
Estimates, projections, models, scenarios and other forward-looking statements in the Content are illustrative. They rest on assumptions that may not prove correct, and actual outcomes may differ materially from them.
The views expressed in a Publication are those of its author or authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARS, its directors, advisers or affiliates, or of any organisation with which an author is associated.
You should obtain independent professional advice before making any decision or taking any action on the basis of the Content. Any decision you make is made at your own risk.
4.Accuracy and currency
We prepare the Content with care and from sources we believe to be reliable, and we identify our sources. However, we do not warrant or represent that the Content, or any third-party data on which it draws, is accurate, complete or current. Content speaks as at its date of publication. Data, laws and circumstances change, and we are under no obligation to update the Content, although we may revise, correct or withdraw any of it at any time. If you believe a Publication contains an error, please tell us at [email protected].
5.Intellectual property
The Content is owned by ARS or is used by ARS under licence, and is protected by the copyright, trade mark and other intellectual property laws of Pakistan, including the Copyright Ordinance, 1962 and the Trade Marks Ordinance, 2001, and by international treaties. All rights not expressly granted in these Terms are reserved.
Some Content reproduces or is derived from material owned by third parties, including statistical data and sources cited in the Publications. That material remains the property of its owners and is subject to their terms.
6.What you may do with the Content
Subject to your compliance with these Terms, ARS grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable and revocable licence to:
- view, download and print the Publications and other Content for your own personal, educational or research use, or for internal, non-commercial use within your organisation;
- quote short extracts from a Publication in your own research, commentary, reporting, teaching or policy work, provided that the extract is reproduced accurately and in context and is attributed to ARS and its author or authors, using the suggested citation given in the Publication where one is provided, together with a link to the Website; and
- share links to the Website and to individual Publications, including through the share tools on the Website.
When you use Content under this licence, you must keep intact all copyright and other notices, must not alter the Content, and must not suggest that ARS or any author endorses you, your organisation or your views.
7.What you may not do
Except as permitted by section 6, by our prior written permission, or by any provision of law that cannot be excluded by agreement, you must not:
- reproduce, republish, redistribute, post or make available the whole or a substantial part of any Publication, including by uploading it to another website, repository, document sharing service or messaging group, rather than linking to it;
- sell, license, rent or otherwise use any Content for commercial purposes, or include it in any product or service offered to others;
- modify, translate or adapt any Content, or create derivative works from it that are presented as, or could reasonably be taken for, the work or views of ARS or its authors;
- attribute to ARS or to any author a view, finding or statement that the Content does not express;
- use any robot, crawler, scraper or other automated means to access, copy, extract or download Content in bulk, other than by search engines indexing the Website for the purpose of providing public search results;
- use any Content for text and data mining, or to train, fine-tune, test or otherwise develop any artificial intelligence or machine learning system, and ARS expressly reserves these rights;
- frame or mirror the Website, or any part of it, on another website;
- attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Website or to any system or network connected to it, introduce any virus or other harmful code, or interfere with or disrupt the Website or its security, conduct that may also be an offence under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016; or
- use the Website in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or that infringes the rights of ARS or any other person.
Requests for permission to republish, translate, license or otherwise use Content beyond these Terms should be sent to [email protected].
8.Our name and logo
“Ardent Research Solutions”, “ARS”, the ARS logo and the names of our publication series are the trade names and marks of ARS. You may not use them, or any confusingly similar name or mark, without our prior written consent, except to identify ARS accurately as the source of Content you are entitled to use under section 6.
9.Enquiries and our services
Contacting us through the Website, by email or by telephone does not create a client, advisory, fiduciary or any other professional relationship between you and ARS. We provide research and advisory services only under a written engagement agreed and signed by ARS, and the terms of that engagement will govern those services and prevail over these Terms.
Please do not send us confidential, commercially sensitive or legally privileged information through the contact form or by unsolicited email. Unless we have agreed otherwise in writing before you send it, we cannot accept any duty of confidentiality in respect of information you send us unsolicited, and we are under no obligation to respond to, act on or return any unsolicited proposal, idea or material.
We handle personal data you send us in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
10.Third-party websites
The Website and the Publications contain links to websites and resources operated by third parties, including the sources we cite. These links are provided for your convenience and for verification only. We have no control over those websites, do not endorse them, and are not responsible for their content, availability or practices. Your use of them is subject to their own terms.
11.Availability and security of the Website
We do not guarantee that the Website or any Content will always be available, uninterrupted, timely or free from errors, or that the Website or the files you download from it are free from viruses or other harmful components. You are responsible for configuring your own technology to access the Website and for using your own virus protection.
12.Disclaimer of warranties
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Website and the Content are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis, and ARS excludes all conditions, warranties, representations and other terms, whether express or implied by statute, common law or otherwise, including any implied terms as to satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement.
13.Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither ARS nor any of its directors, employees, authors, advisers or agents will be liable to you, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise, for any loss or damage arising out of or in connection with your use of, inability to use, or reliance on the Website or any Content. This includes, without limitation, any loss of profit, revenue, business, opportunity, goodwill or data, any investment or trading loss, and any indirect, special or consequential loss, even if ARS had been advised of the possibility of that loss.
Where, despite the preceding paragraph, ARS is found to be liable to you, its total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the Website and the Content shall not exceed Rs. 10,000.
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law, including liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.
14.Indemnity
You agree to indemnify ARS and its directors, employees, authors and advisers against any claims, losses, liabilities, costs and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, arising out of your breach of these Terms or your misuse of the Website or the Content.
15.Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them, the Website or the Content, including non-contractual disputes or claims, are governed by the laws of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Before starting any proceedings, the party raising a dispute shall notify the other in writing, and both shall attempt in good faith to resolve it by discussion within 30 days of that notice. Subject to that, the courts at Islamabad shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any such dispute or claim, save that ARS may seek urgent injunctive or other interim relief to protect its intellectual property or the security of the Website in any court of competent jurisdiction.
16.General
If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, it shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect. A failure or delay by ARS in enforcing any provision is not a waiver of its rights. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any notice or permission given in writing by ARS, form the entire agreement between you and ARS about your use of the Website. You may not transfer your rights under these Terms; ARS may transfer its rights and obligations to a successor to its business. These Terms are an electronic document for the purposes of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance, 2002. If these Terms are translated, the English version prevails. Headings are for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.
17.Contact
Ardent Research Solutions (Pvt.) Ltd.
48 Nazim-ud-din Road, F-7/4, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Email: [email protected]