ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court has ordered the government to hold municipal elections in the federal capital within the next six months.

A one-judge bench of the IHC’s Justice Anwarul Haq Qadri on Tuesday heard the petition regarding local body elections in the capital with advocates Babar Awan and Kaukab Iqbal representing each side.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the court ordered the federal government to hold local body polls in Islamabad in the next six months.

The case was filed about six months ago, with the petitioners pleading to the court that the common man was being deprived of his basic rights because local government weren’t being held. The petitioners further argued that because municipal elections had not been held for several years, the people in the city’s outskirts were facing a lot of problems.