The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday ruled that it will conduct local government elections in Punjab in the last week of December 2025 under the Punjab Local Government Act, 2022.
A four-member bench of the ECP, led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Raja Sultan, issued the verdict while hearing a case pertaining to the delay in the local bodies’ polls in Punjab. It said the delimitation process for the local body polls would start from Thursday (Oct. 9), adding it would be completed within two months.
“The ECP will hold local body elections in Punjab under the 2022 law,” the bench ruled, noting it had in June granted the provincial government three months to issue appropriate orders for the conduct of the polls. “After lapse of the given time, no response was received” from the Punjab government, it added.
During the hearing, the CEC voiced his displeasure over the long delay in the conduct of local government polls in Punjab, which has had no local bodies since 2018. He termed it an “embarrassment” for both the ECP and successive governments of the province.
“The local government elections have not been held in the country’s biggest province. It is not only an embarrassment for the election commission but also for various governments,” he remarked, adding all the governments that had come into power since 2018 had avoided conducting the elections.
He said it was now time for the ECP to exercise its constitutional authority and take a decisive step. He also referred to a statement from a Punjab government minister: “A minister said yesterday that Punjab and Islamabad are ready, but the ECP is delaying the process. They [Punjab ministers] themselves are delaying and blaming the ECP,” he said.
The ECP’s ruling notes that successive Punjab governments have amended local government laws five times. It recalled that two separate local government laws were introduced in May 2019, followed by another amendment through an ordinance in December 2021. Another new law was passed on June 24, 2022, and yet another on Nov. 16, 2022. It noted the delimitation process was launched in June 2020, but was suspended at the request of the Punjab government.
Similar delimitation exercises were carried out between December 2021 and March 2022, followed by another round between 2022 and February 2023. It said another schedule for delimitation from June 2024 was withdrawn at the request of the Punjab government.
A Punjab government representative claimed during the proceedings that a new law had been approved by the provincial cabinet, but could not be placed before the Punjab Assembly due to this year’s floods.