PESHAWAR: Local Council Association (LCA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and several heads of local councils on Thursday moved Peshawar High Court, seeking directives for Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to forthwith announce schedule for conduct of local government polls in the province.

A joint petition was filed by president of LCA, Himayatullah Mayar, who is also mayor of Mardan city council, and five other chairmen of different local councils. They have requested the court to restrain respondents including ECP and KP government from allowing any constitutional vacuum to occur upon expiry of the tenure of the existing local governments. They want continuity of elected local government institutions in accordance with Article 140-A of the Constitution.

The tenure of half of the local councils will expire on March 15, whereas that of the remaining half will end on June 20, 2026.

The petitioners sought declaration of court that failure and inaction of respondents in not announcing and conducting local government elections prior to or immediately upon expiry of the present tenure in March 2026 was unconstitutional, unlawful and violative of several provisions of the Constitution read with Section 219 (4) of Elections Act, 2017.

Petitioners seek continuity of the system to avoid constitutional vacuum

The petition filed through Advocate Babar Khan Yousafzai includes as respondents ECP through its secretary, KP government through its chief secretary and provincial secretary of local government department.

The petitioners stated that they were elected mayors/chairmen of local councils and also office-bearers of LCA, which represented local governments across the province.

They said that Article 140-A of the Constitution categorically provided that each province should by law establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to elected representatives of local governments.

They stated that Article 140-A (2) of the Constitution provided that elections to local governments should be held by ECP. The petitioners said that articles 218 (3) and 219 (d) of Constitution placed constitutional duty upon ECP to organise and conduct local government elections honestly, justly and in accordance with law.

The petitioner said that their tenure in KP was expiring in March 2026. They stated that despite the clear foreseeable expiry date, neither provincial government nor ECP had announced any schedule for the forthcoming elections.

The petitioners stated that the impending expiry of LG tenure in March 2026 without an announced election schedule created a real and imminent risk of constitutional vacuum, whereby powers and functions meant to be exercised by elected representatives would be assumed by unelected functionaries, thereby defeating the purpose of Article 140-A of the Constitution and preamble of KP Local Government Act, 2013.

They contended that Section 219 (4) of Elections Act, 2017, contemplated that elections to local governments should be held within 120 days of the expiry of the term of a local government.

They claimed that repeated experience in the province had demonstrated that delays in conducting local government elections often necessitated judicial intervention to enforce compliance with the constitutional mandate.

They contended that Article 32 of the Constitution obligated the state to encourage local government institutions composed of elected representatives. However, they said that the failure to announce elections frustrated the constitutional objective of participatory democracy and rendered Article 32 ineffective and redundant.

They contended that Supreme Court of Pakistan had consistently emphasised that local government elections were not optional administrative arrangements but constitutional imperatives, and that provinces couldn’t frustrate or delay such elections on one pretext or another.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2026