Local govt polls in Punjab to be held in December, rules ECP

Islamabad (Web Desk): The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced on Wednesday that Punjab’s long-delayed local government elections will finally take place in the last week of December 2025.

Issuing its decision on a case related to the postponement of local body polls in the province, the ECP bench — led by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja — directed that the process of delimitation would commence on Thursday and conclude within two months.

The bench also included members Nisar Durrani, Shah Muhammad Jatoi, and Babar Hassan Bharwana.

According to the ruling, the local government elections in Punjab will be organized under the Local Government Act of 2022.

During the proceedings, the chief election commissioner expressed strong dissatisfaction over the repeated delays, terming the situation a matter of embarrassment for both the election commission and the successive provincial governments.

He lamented that despite Punjab being the country’s largest province, local government polls had not been conducted for several years.

“It is a source of embarrassment not only for the Election Commission but also for all the governments that have ruled during this time,” Raja said, asserting that none of the administrations that came to power had shown interest in holding the elections.

The CEC stressed that the time had arrived for the ECP to exercise its constitutional mandate and move forward decisively. Referring to a recent statement by a provincial minister, he remarked, “A minister claimed yesterday that Punjab and Islamabad are ready while the ECP is delaying the process.

In truth, it is the provincial authorities who are responsible for the delay while blaming the commission.”

In its judgment, the ECP observed that the tenure of Punjab’s local governments had ended in December 2021, yet elections had not been conducted since.

It further highlighted that the Punjab government had amended its local government legislation five times in recent years, which contributed to repeated interruptions in the electoral process.

The ruling stated that two separate local government laws had been introduced in May 2019, followed by an amendment through an ordinance in December 2021. Another new law was enacted on June 24, 2022, and one more on November 16, 2022.

The ECP recalled that it had initiated the delimitation exercise in June 2020 but later suspended it at the request of the Punjab government.

The verdict added that another round of delimitation took place between December 2021 and March 2022, and a subsequent process was carried out between 2022 and February 2023.

The ECP noted that it had issued a delimitation schedule in June 2024, which was again withdrawn upon the provincial government’s request.