ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday criticised the federal government for delaying legislation for holding local government polls in the federal capital.

The electioneering body deplored that whenever it completed preparation for holding the elections, amendments were made to the Local Government Act.

The term of local government in Islamabad expired in February 2021. But despite the passage of over five years, elections have not been held.

The ECP conducted delimitation of constituencies five times and the election schedule was issued thrice, only to be cancelled later on.

Electioneering body says federal government keeps moving goalposts whenever preparations are finalised

The ECP on Friday stated that if the government does not show any seriousness in holding polls in Islamabad, then the ECP will hold a hearing to pass an order, which will be binding on the government.

According to the ECP, a meeting headed by Secretary Omar Hamid Khan was held on Friday to discuss local government elections.

Besides others, the meeting was also attended by the special secretary, additional secretary, joint secretary of the interior and the chief commissioner of Islamabad.

The ECP, quoting the secretary, stated that due to amendments to the Local Government Act Islamabad in various tenures, the elections could not be held.

The secretary went on to say that so far the electoral body has conducted delimitation of constituencies five times and three times the election schedule was issued.

“Whenever the ECP completes preparation for holding elections, amendments are made to the Local Government Act,” he said.

Mr Khan further said that in August 2024, amendments were made to the Local Government Act and after reviewing it, the ECP pointed out some mistakes in the act and directed for framing rules in the light of the amendments.

During the meeting, officials of the Ministry of Interior informed that the proposed Local Government Act 2025 with necessary amendment(s) had been presented to the Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC).

After approval of CCLC, the same would be presented before the federal cabinet for approval.

The ECP’s statement said that the Islamabad chief commissioner assured the meeting that the local administration would act promptly after approval of the proposed act and would fully cooperate the with ECP for holding elections.

When the tenure of the local government expired in Feb 2021, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was in power, but it did not show any interest in holding polls.

Later on, the PDM government came into power and it too managed to drag the elections.

During the PDM tenure, the elections were all set to be held in 50 union councils (UCs) like previous practice, but the PDM government pleaded that instead of 50 there should be 101 union councils in the federal capital.

On this pretext, the elections were delayed. Later, when arrangements were finalised to hold the elections in 101 UCs, the PDM government came up with a new idea of increasing the number of UCs from 101 to 125.

Then, elections were scheduled in 125 UCs, but in September last year, it came up with another idea of increasing the number of general seats in the UCs.

The last LG elections were held in 2015-16, which were won by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Sheikh Anser Aziz was elected as the first mayor of Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2025