' MIAN SAQIB NISAR, J.---The petitioner and respondent No,1 contested the election for the post of Vice-President, Lahore Bar Association Model Town, Seat; the petitioner has lost the election by procuring 1019 as against 2550 votes secured by respondent No,1; the nomination papers for the election, which was to be held on 13-1-2009 were filed by the candidates on 29-12-2008; the petitioner moved the objection to the respondent's nomination claiming that he is ineligible because of being non-practising lawyer for the last 7 years, which is one of the basic qualifications as per the relevant rule; the objection was turned down by the Election Board vide order dated 1-1- 2009, the petitioner's appeals before the Punjab Bar Council and Appeal Committee Pakistan Bar Council, stand respectively dismissed by virtue or orders dated 3-1-2009 sand 30-1-2009. Hence this petition.
2. Learned counsel for the petitioner states that respondent No,1 was enrolled as an Advocate by the Punjab Bar Council on 31-3-2001; he under the provisions of Rule 7.13 of the Punjab Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Rules, 1974 (hereinafter be referred to as Rules 1974) within six months of his enrolment was required to seek the membership of a recognized Bar Association of the Punjab and thus could only practise as per Rule 7.10 (Rules 1974) thereafter, whereas the respondent No,1 got the membership of the Lahore Bar Association on 16-12-2002 and because as a practising lawyer on the date of filing the nomination papers, his eligibility tenure of 7 years was not yet complete as required by Article 5(i) of the Memorandum of Association 1981 (hereinafter be called the Articles), he thus was not qualified.
3. Heard. In order to appreciate the point, it is expedient to reproduce the relevant provision of Article 5(i) of the Articles, Rules 7.10 and 7.13 of the 1974 Rules, which in the seriatim reads as under:- - "5(i). 'Eligible Candidate' means a practising member of the Association having practised at the time of filing nomination papers for a period of not less than (i) Three years for the office of member Executive Committee; (ii) five years for the office of Secretary, (iii) Seven years for the office of the Vice-President; and (iv) Ten years for the office of the President, respectively."
' Rule 7.10.
"No person shall practise as an Advocate unless he is a member of a recognized Bar Association.".
' Rule 7.13.
"The applicant shall, within six months of his enrolment as an Advocate, inform the Bar Council of the date of his application for admission as a member of such Bar Association and shall forward a copy of the receipt of such application duly signed by the Secretary of such Bar Association. The licence of the Advocate who has not without reasonable excuse, so intimated the Bar Council shall stand automatically suspended: provided that it shall be restored in his showing reasonable cause for the failure."
3-A. The expression "practising member of the Association having practised" (Emphasis added) in the noted Articles is the most pivotal regarding the eligibility of the candidate and he being a practising Advocate is a sine qua non, as the basic qualification for his candidature to contest the election for a particular post; in this context, the concept/word "practice" is the key and the heart of the expression, which in the ordinary parlance means to perform or work at repeatedly so as to become proficient; carry out, to do or perform customarily, to be professionally engaged in (e.g. Practice law medic etc.). According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary New Edition, the word "practice" has been defined as "perform habitually; carry out in action, to do repeatedlyas an exercise to improve a skill; exercise oneself in or on (an activity requiring skill), pursue or be engaged in (a profession, religion, etc.), currently active or engaged in a profession or activity".
4. Under the provision of the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973 and the rules framed thereunder, a person shall be entitled to be enrolled as an Advocate with any Bar Council in Pakistan subject to the conditions mentioned in the law. Rule 7.10 unequivocally and clearly specifies that no person shall practice as an Advocate unless he is a member of a recognized Bar Association. This clearly means that even having been enrolled as an Advocate by the Bar Council still in order to practice, the membership of the Bar Association is imperative. This view is fortified by Rule 7.13 where it is provided that within six months of a person being enrolled as an Advocate, he has to inform the Bar Council of the date of his application for admission as a member of such Bar Association and if it is not so done, the licence granted to such an Advocate, who has no reasonable excuse to propound for the noted lapse, shall stand automatically suspended. In the instant matter, respondent No,1, as has been specified above, obtained his enrolment with the Bar Council on 31-3-2001 but till 16-12-2002, he was not enrolled with the Lahore Bar Association/or any other, therefore, reading two rules together, not only that he was ineligible to practice rather his licence during this period seems to be not in force and only revived when he got the membership of the Association on 16-12-2002, therefore, respondent No,1 was not the practicing lawyer till 16-12- 2002 as he could not practice unless was a member of the Bar Association and resultantly, was ineligible in terms of Article 5(i) mentioned above; his nomination papers thus should not have been accepted by the Election Board; however, there was no appeal available to the petitioner regarding the rejection of his objection and against the acceptances of the nomination papers, rather the petitioner was required to file the election petition after the election, as has been held in the judgment reported as Muhammad Farooq Warind v. Pakistan Bar Council through Vice- Chairman and 5 others PLD 2009 Lahore 572, but this course was not adopted, rather he resorted to incompetent remedies. Be that as it may, respondent No,1 cannot be said to be eligible to contest for the election on the date as of filing of his nomination papers; his practicing period was short by one year, eight months and five days, therefore, this writ petition is accepted to the extent of declaring about the ineligibility of respondent No,1 in view of Article 5(i) and the impugned orders to the contrary are set aside; however keeping in view that the petitioner resorted to wrong remedies under the law; there is vast differences of votes such as 1531, thus keeping in view the mandate of the electorates; the tenure of office is likely to complete within few weeks from now, thus while exercising of my constitutional discretionary powers, I am not inclined to annul the election of respondent No,1, therefore, any relief sought by the petitioner in this direction is declined. No order as to costs.