Cooperative Farming Act, 1976

This 1976 Act provides the legal framework for forming and running cooperative farming societies in Pakistan, and Section 2 makes it override the general Co-operative Societies Act, 1925 on matters affecting landlord-tenant rights. Section 4 sets the conditions for registering a society: it must have at least twenty members, and the total land pooled by those members must be at least five hundred acres in Balochistan, Punjab, or Sindh, or at least three hundred acres in the former North-West Frontier Province, and that pooled land must form one contiguous farm. Section 5 requires the Registrar to register a qualifying society and its bye-laws within fifteen days of application, and Section 6 makes the registration certificate conclusive evidence of registration unless later cancelled.

Chapter III requires an annual general meeting plus at least one other general meeting each agricultural year (Section 8), and Section 9 lets one-fifth of members requisition a special general meeting. Chapter IV governs the managing committee: Section 10 gives each member one vote regardless of how much land they pooled, and members elect a committee of seven to eleven people, including office-bearers, for two-year terms, with a two-consecutive-term limit.

Chapter V confirms societies are bodies corporate (Section 16) and covers liability for encumbrances on pooled land (Section 19) and audit requirements (Section 20). Chapter VI covers the society's property and funds, including provisions for a Reserve Fund and Development Fund (Section 23) and how produce income (Section 24) and profits (Section 25) are distributed among members. Chapter VII covers winding up a society (Sections 27-29) and dispute resolution through arbitration (Section 32). Chapter VIII builds a federated structure above individual societies: District Co-operative Federations (Section 35), Provincial Co-operative Federations (Section 37), and a National Co-operative Council (Section 43), each with its own functions.

Chapter X contains several practical protections and requirements: Section 51 lets the Provincial Government exempt societies from stamp duty or registration fees, Section 52 exempts a society's earnings and member dividends from income tax, and Section 53 requires anyone wanting to sue a society or its office-bearers to first give three months' written notice to the Chairman of the District Co-operative Federation. Section 54 gives a power of revision over decisions made under the Act. Section 57 repeals the earlier Co-operative Farming Ordinance, 1976 that this Act replaced.

The extract shows relatively few amendments to this Act beyond a 1981 Ordinance excluding it from the Islamabad Capital Territory, so it appears substantially in its original form, though as with any older statute it is worth confirming current land-area and membership thresholds against the official text.