SHAHID NAWAZ KHAN Versus ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER/ REGISTRATION OFFICER

ORDER

1. SAAD SAOOD JAN, J.- -The petitioner is a candidate in the election from Ward No.6 for election to the District Council, Bahawalpur. His nomination paper has been accepted and he has also been allotted a symbol. There is however a difficulty in his way. He has been enrolled as a voter in Mauza Kotla Qaim Khan which falls in a different ward. On 3-11-87, he made an application before the Registration Officer for exclusion of his name from the Electoral Roll of the said Mauza and inclusion in Mauza Dedah where, according to him, he owned considerable property and a large number of his family members were residing. It may be mentioned that Mauza Dedah alls in Ward No.6. Before his application could be processed, the Punjab Local Councils Election Authority, by a notification dated 4-11-87, announced the schedule for holding elections to Local Councils in the Province. By an order dated 8-11-87, the Registration Officer rejected the application on the ground that under paragraph 35 of the Manual of Instructions no application for inclusion in or exclusion from the electoral unit of any name could be entertained after the voters of an electoral unit had been called upon by the Election Authority to elect a member and till such member had been elected. The petitioner called in question the legality of the order of the Registration Officer in writ jurisdiction in the High Court but without any success. He now seeks leave to appeal from this Court.

2. Section 18, Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 1979, reads as follows:-

2. "The electoral rolls prepared for election of members of any person entitled to be so enrolled or registered or of inclusion of the name of any person not so entitled:

3. Provided further that the corrections, if any, made in respect of any electoral roll at any time after the voters of the electoral unit have been called upon to elect its member shall not be taken into consideration till such member has been elected."

4. It will appear from the second proviso that even if the' Registration Officer had allowed the application of the petitioner on h the day he rejected it, the transfer of name of the petitioner from Mauna Qasim Khan to the Electoral Roll of Mauza Dedah would not have been of any assistance to him in contesting election from Ward No.6. That being so, we do not think that this is a fit case in which leave to appeal should be granted to the petitioner. The petition is accordingly dismissed.

5. M.I. /S-87/S Petition dismissed.