KARACHI, Nov 14: The Sindh High Court asked co-operative housing societies on Tuesday to streamline their working in accordance with the new rules prescribed by Sindh government.

Disallowing seven writ petitions moved by as many co-operative housing societies, a division bench comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Mohammad Athar Saeed upheld the impugned provincial government notification of Nov 22, 2000, which laid down the new guidelines by amending the Sindh Cooperative Societies Rules, 1927.

1. The tenure of the managing committee of every society shall be two years.

2. The quorum for annual general meeting, including the meeting convened to hold annual general election, shall be 40 per cent of the total membership of a society.

3. The managing committee shall arrange holding of general elections before the date of expiry of its term, failing which the managing committee shall stand dissolved on the expiry of its term.

4. No one shall be eligible to contest elections to any office of a society or to membership of its committee for more than two terms.

5. Elections shall be held by secret ballot and not by any other method.

The notification was challenged by seven societies as undue interference in their working. The petitioners said the provincial co-operation department had no authority to amend the 1927 Rules.

Contesting the petitions, Additional Advocate-General M. Ahmed Pirzada submitted that the department was fully empowered to amend the rules under Section 71 of the Sindh Co-operative Housing Societies Act, 1925.

The rules were amended in the interest of the societies, their members and the public at large. Much of their precious time and resources were expended on litigation over election disputes. The result was that the elected managing committees were often superseded the members were thus effectively denied in the affairs of their societies.

The new rules were aimed at streamlining the functioning of the co-operative sector in the vital field of housing, the AAG said.