ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday notified a schedule for the delimitation of constituencies for the local government elections in Islamabad.
According to the schedule, administrative arrangements such as the procurement of maps and relevant data will be made from July 22 to July 31. The process of delimitation will be completed when final lists of constituencies and union councils will be officially published on October 13. After this, the election schedule will be issued.
The term of the last local government in Islamabad expired in February 2021, and since then, 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. On several occasions, the federal government decided to hold elections only to cancel them later under various pretexts, mainly to “further strengthen” local government act for “better performance.”
Says arrangements such as procurement of maps, relevant data will be made from July 22 to 31
Earlier, in January this year, President Asif Ali Zardari approved an ordinance which introduced several amendments to the Local Government Act 2015.
Besides replacing the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) with three town corporations, the ordinance gave the government-appointed administrator more powers and an indefinite tenure.
The new ordinance was introduced at a time when the local governments in Islamabad were scheduled to be held on February 15. Thousands of people from all 125 Union Councils had already submitted nomination papers for the elections.
Meanwhile, the ordinance also stated that in the absence of the local government, the administrator can hold office until the new local government elections are held - replacing the bar that the administrator’s tenure shall not exceed six months. The ordinance also empowered the administrator to levy tax, fee, rate, rent, toll charge or surcharge.
According to the ordinance, 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.
It is relevant to note that when the election schedule was announced by the ECP in February 2026, the local chapter of the PTI had claimed that the government fearing defeat would opt for an escape route and would not conduct the elections in February.
However, PML-N former deputy mayor Syed Zeeshan Ali Naqvi had rejected the claim of the PTI, stating that the ordinance was brought for a better local government system in Islamabad, adding that PML-N will win elections.
When the local government’s term ended in 2021, the 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, 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.
In February, this year, ECP had decided to hold elections for 125 UCs, but the elections were postponed amid fresh legislation for dividing Islamabad into three town corporations. Now, a delimitation schedule has been issued but time will tell if elections will be held on the basis of these delimitations or not.
Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2026