MUHAMMAD AKHTAR SHABBIR, J.--- The election of the Local Zakat and Ushr Committee of Nauza Mandiali Kalan Tehsil Shakkargarh were held under the direction of the District Committee on 26.10.2002. One Chairman, Muhammad Ramzan the present petitioner and Eight other members including two ladies were elected the report of which was submitted to the District Committee.
2. The petitioner has knocked the Constitutional jurisdiction of this Court for issuance of the direction to respondent No. 1 to notify the election of the said local Zakat and Ushr Committee.
3. Parawise comments/report from respondent No. 1 were called for, received and perused, wherein it is stated that the Election Team .At the place of election asked the gathering to elect the Chairman in the first instance and thereafter the Convener of the election team called upon the gathering to elect the remaining eight members.
4. The election of the Local Zakat and Ushr Committee shall be conducted according to the procedure prescribed in the Local and Tehsil/Sub-Divisional Zakat and Ushr Committee (Constitution) Rules, 1993.
5. Rule 5 of these rules contemplated:-
(i) The District Committee shall give to every Team, a programme of work indicating clearly the venue, the date and the time of the selection of/election in each locality.
(ii) The District Committee and the Team shall given widest possible publicity, in the localities concerned, to the programme of work given to a Team under sub-rule (1).
(iii) The Programme of work under sub-rule (1) shall be so planned by the District Committee that the residents of each locality get at least seven days' notice of the selection/election of their Local Committees.
(iv) The District Committee shall so arrange the selection/election programme of the Local Committees that it is spread over a period of one to two months in the District so that each team can conveniently supervise every selection/election entrusted to it.
6. Rule 6 further provided that the Team shall arrive at the appointed place, sufficiently ahead of the appointed time to make proper arrangements for such selection/election provided inter alia for separate enclosure for the males and the females in the gathering.
7. According to rule ibid soon after the appointed time, the Team shall call upon the gathering to select seven adult Muslims residing in that locality, who are known to be pious and not engaged in political activity and who enjoy their trust to be the members of the Local Committee concerned.
8. The team shall also call upon the enclosure of the gathering of the female to select two Muslim women who are not less than 45 years of age residing in that locality, who are known to be pious and not engaged in political activities and who enjoy their trust to be member of Local Committee concerned.
And after the selection of 9 persons including two Muslims women as prescribed in Rule 7, these nine persons shall be declared by the Team to have been selected as the members of the Local Committee.
8. Rule 12 of the said Rules envisages:-
(i) After nine members have been selected under Rules, 8, 9 or 10, the team shall call upon the members present to select one of their members, who is literate and who offers prayers five times a day regularly and observes fast throughout Ramzan-ul-Mubarik according to the Injunctions of Islam, as the Chairman, the condition of the Chairman being literate shall however, be waived in a locality where no literate adult pious practising Muslim resident is available.
9. As soon as after the selection/election in a locality as possible, the Team shall send a report to the District Committee giving brief account orthe procedure adopted for and results recurred in respect of the selection/election of candidates with their proposers and seconders shall also be given. The Team shall also give in the report particulars of persons who raised, under sub-section
(6) of Section 18 of the Ordinance, any objections, the gist of such objections and the decision given thereon. The Team may also mention any other noteworthy aspect of the selection/election in that report. The report shall be signed by all the members of the Team and delivered to the District Committee at the earliest.
10. Rule 14 further enshrines that the District Committee shall duly notify as required under sub- section (5) of Section 9 of the Ordinance, the Constitution of the Local Committee concerned, as soon after the receipt of the report of the Team under Rule 13 as possible and in a manner deemed appropriate by the District Committee.
11. As referred in preceding paragraphs the Team constituted for the election of the local Zakat and Ushr Committee in the first instance will elect/select seven male muslim members and two women calling upon the gathering to select their members and after the election/selection of the members, the Chairman shall be elected out of nine selected members of the Committee but here in the instant case the Team has not performed the prescribed procedure and firstly, selected the Chairman/present petitioner. Thereafter, the members were selected. The pre-condition for the election of a Chairman Is that the Chairman shall be selected out of the nine elected members.
Here, in this case the Chairman was selected prior to the selection/election of the members of the Committee. It would mean that the election Team has not performed the prescribed procedure provided in the law as is evident from the application of the convener of the Team, Nasrullah Khan Headmaster submitted to the Chairman, District Zakat and Ushr Committee was selected before the election of the selection of the Members of the Local Committee and this was done due to his ignorance of law.
12. It is settled proposition of law that an Act is to be done in accordance with the procedure prescribed in the law and rules and the contravention thereof the same shall be deemed to have not done in consonance of law. Where law requires performance of an act in a particular manner to take legal effect affecting adversely valuable rights of any person or group of persons, same was necessary to be performed in that manner, and performance of same through all other modes would be deemed to have been either forbidden or if performed same would not have effect of giving legal efficacy to the act. Reference be placed to cases of Maula Dad Khan v. The Provincial Government of the Punjab (1997 CLC 59), E.A. Evans v. Muhammad Ashraf (PLD 1964 SC 536) and Aziz v. West Pakistan Publishing Company (PLD 1965 Lah. 82).
13. From the above discussion, I am constrained to observe that the election/selection of the local Zakat and Ushr Committee of Mandiali Kala Tehsil Shakkargarh has not been conducted in accordance with the requirement of law, therefore, the Election of the Committee is declared as illegal, without lawful authority and the rule 'Nisi' is declined. As a result whereof this writ petition is disposed of with the direction to the Chairman, Zakat and Ushr Committee to hold fresh election of the Local Committee concerned.