ISLAMABAD: Deter­mined to hold local government polls in Punjab, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued a schedule for the delimitation of constituencies for the electoral exercise slated to be held in the last week of April 2023.

This would be the third time in recent days that the ECP would conduct the delimitation of the constituencies for local government (LG) elections in Punjab.

According to the schedule issued by the Election Commission, completion of all the administrative arrangements, including procurement of maps, fresh notification of demarcations printing of various forms, appointment and training of delimitation committees and authorities, is fixed for Dec 15, followed by preparations of the preliminary list of constituencies by the delimitation committees from Dec 16 to Jan 2, 2023.

For inviting objections, the delimitation committees will publish a preliminary list of constituencies on Jan 7, whereas objections can be filed before the delimitation authorities from Jan 9 to Jan 23, followed by disposal of objections from Jan 9 to Feb 3.

The last date for communication of decisions of delimitation authorities to the delimitation committees is Feb 9. The final publication of the list of constituencies by the delimitation committee is Feb 12.

In its previous meeting, the commission decided to hold the LG election in the largest province during the last week of April 2023. The term of the local governments in Punjab ended on Jan 1, 2022, and under the law, the elections were supposed to be held within 120 days after the expiry of the term.

The commission had blamed the provincial government for the delay in the LG polls, saying amending the rules from time to time caused the delay. In April 2019, the Usman Buzdar-led Punjab government dissolved local government institutions in Punjab, which were later restored by the Supreme Court. The term of those local bodies expired on Dec 31, 2021.

Subsequently, the provincial government amended the local bodies law several times ostensibly to delay holding the fresh polls. In September, the Punjab Assembly passed the Local Government Bill 2021 repealing the Local Government Act 2022 which was passed by the Hamza Shehbaz-led government in June.

The bill has done away with the middle tier — tehsil councils in rural and town councils in urban areas — of the local government system. It has also reduced the number of seats in a union council. The general seats of councillors were cut from six to five, women reserved seats from three to two and youths’ from two to one, whereas three seats reserved for technocrats and two for disabled persons were also abolished.

In a related development, the commission said polling for the first phase of local government elections will be held on Dec 11 in two districts of Balochistan, Lasbela and Hub, as well as in the Municipal Committee Huramzai of Pishin district.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2022