ISLAMABAD: After showing concerns over the five-year delay, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to hold the local government elections in Islamabad, but a date is yet to be announced.

The ECP stated that the terms of the local government in Islamabad expired on February 14, 2021 and the elections were supposed to be conducted within 120 days after it.

The ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja and four members, heard the case on October 13 and issued the final order on Monday.

The order stated that ECP “has decided to hold local government elections in ICT and further decided that amendment made in section 15 of ICT Local Government Act 2015 through ICT Amendment Act 2024 is not consonance with the provisions of Constitutions, Election Act, 2017 and Section 20 of ICT Local Government Act, 2015.”

It added: “The commission is empowered under Section 50, 219, 224 of the Elections Act, 2017 read with Section 20 of ICT Local Government Act, 2015 to appoint DROs, ROs and AROs amongst its own officers, officers of the government, judiciary or a body or entity controlled by the government. The secretary Union Council is not covered by term officer as mention in Section 50 of Elections Act, 2017 and cannot be endorsed by the commission to fulfill the responsibilities to conduct of Local Government Elections.”

It said: “It is further held that election to the reserved seats shall be conducted by the officers appointed and notified by the Commission….and ECP is not bound to appoint secretary Union Council for conduct of ICT local government elections. The office is directed to put up election program accordingly.”

It is relevant to note that the federal government was not in a mood to hold elections as last months through a bill it sought another amendment to the Local Government Act, apparently to empower the administrator. In the proposed bill, the government wants to end the bar of six months on the administrator for running the affairs of the local government and seeks other powers for him.

Earlier, ECP had conducted delimitation of constituencies multiple times and issued an election schedule at least thrice only to be cancelled later.

Like the incumbent, the previous government of PTI also did not show any seriousness in holding the local government elections. When it was in power, the five-year term of the local government ended in 2021 and new elections should have been conducted within 120 days.

Later, the PDM came into power and it too managed to drag the elections. During the PDM’s tenure, the elections were all set to be held in 50 union councils (UCs) like the previous practice, but the 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, the government came up with another idea of increasing the number of general seats in the UCs.

The first and last LG elections in the capital were held in 2015-16 which were won by the PML-N and Sheikh Anser Aziz was elected as the mayor of Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2025