ISLAMABAD: The delimitation committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has finalised initial delimitation list of constituencies for local government (LG) elections in Islamabad.

According to the ECP, the committee finalised initial delimitation list of 101 union councils. It said that each union council will have six general wards and two women wards.

The ECP said that objections and suggestions on initial lists of delimitation of union councils could be submitted from July 23 to August 7.

According to the ECP, the election commissioner Rawalpindi has been appointed as delimitation authority, who will hear suggestion and objections on the initial list.

The election body said the delimitation authority will dispose of objections by Aug 22 and final list of union councils and wards will be published on Aug 26. The local government elections were supposed to be held on July 31 on 50 union councils.

However, PML-N and PPP filed a case in the Islamabad High Court pleading that numbers of union councils should be increased from 50 to 101, therefore, elections should be deferred for the time being. To this, the court directed the ECP last month for fresh delimitation and now the initial list has been finalised.

After finalising the delimitation process, the ECP will issue new election schedule.

The local government completed its five-year term in February 2021 and elections were slated to be held within three months, but were not as the PTI government wanted to get the polls conducted on the basis of a new delimitation.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2022