LAHORE, Feb 27: The court has no power to declare a cooperative society ‘desirable’ or ‘undesirable’ under the Punjab Undesirable Cooperative Societies (Dissolution) Act, 1993, according to the Lahore High Court cooperatives judge.

Disposing of a petition moved by a former federal finance minister, Ihsanul Haq Piracha, for exclusion of his Mercantile Cooperative Finance Corporation from the list of undesirable societies, Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari agreed with Advocate Muhammad Ilyas Khan, counsel for the Punjab Cooperative Liquidation Board, that under Section 26 of the 1993 Act, it is only the government which can amend its schedule. The schedule contains the list of undesirable societies.

The PCLB counsel also submitted that the corporation had been conducting the business of banking in violation of the law and its own charter. The cooperatives registrar had filed a petition for its winding up, which was pending before the co-op judge.

Mr Piracha’s counsel, Raja Muhammad Anwar, submitted that the corporation had paid Rs630 million to its depositors and its assets exceeded its liabilities. He denied that it had been carrying on banking business and gave an undertaking on his client’s behalf that it would not, in any case, conduct such business in future.

Without going into the merits of the case, Justice Bhandari disposed of the petition on the question of jurisdiction.