ISLAMABAD: Local government elections in Islamabad are likely to be postponed once again, for the fifth time in a row, as the federal cabinet on Friday approved several amendments to the Local Government Act, 2015.

The elections are scheduled to be held on February 15. However, the cabinet’s approval of fresh amendments to the Act has made it almost impossible to hold the polls next month. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), however, has yet to officially announce the postponement.

The federal cabinet approved 14 amendments to the Act, including a change in the name of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad, replacing it with “Town Corporations”.

According to the new proposal, there will be three town corporations in Islamabad and each town corporation will comprise, as far as practicable, the territorial limits of a National Assembly (NA) constituency within the capital. Islamabad has three NA seats.

Cabinet approves changes to ICT Local Government Act 2015

“The cabinet endorsed the decisions made in the meeting of the Cabinet Committee for Legislative Cases on December 30, 2025, which also include confirmation of action regarding the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025,” said an official statement issued after the cabinet meeting.

When the election schedule was announced by the ECP last month, the local chapter of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had claimed that the government would opt for an escape route and would not conduct the elections in February.

The claim was rejected by the local leadership of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which said it had won the last elections and would win again, while arguing that amendments were required for improved service delivery.

The term of the last local government expired in February 2021, and since then the elections have been delayed under various pretexts. As a result, around 2.5 million residents of Islamabad continue to face issues ranging from water shortages to unpaved streets.

Earlier, the ECP conducted delimitations of constituencies multiple times and issued election schedules on several occasions, only for them to be cancelled later. A few years ago, the elections were even cancelled a day before polling.

It is pertinent to note that when the local government’s term ended in 2021, PTI was in power and elections were supposed to be held within 120 days. However, the PTI government did not take serious steps to conduct the polls.

When the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) came into power, it too delayed the elections.

During the PDM’s tenure, elections were set to be held in 50 union councils (UCs), but the government argued that the number should be increased to 101 UCs in the federal capital, leading to further delays.

Later, when arrangements were finalised to hold elections in 101 UCs, the PDM government proposed increasing the number of UCs from 101 to 125. Elections were then scheduled for 125 UCs, but in September last year the government decided to increase the number of general seats in the UCs.

Last month, the ECP decided to hold elections for 125 UCs, but the government has now introduced fresh amendments to the local government law, replacing the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad with town corporations and dividing them into three areas.

The first and only local government elections in the capital were held in 2015–16, which were won by the PML-N, with Sheikh Anser Aziz elected as mayor of Islamabad. At that time, there were 50 union councils in the capital.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2026