• Delimitation process will be completed within two months: ECP.
• ECP to hold local body polls in Punjab under the 2022 law.
• Successive govts did not want LG polls to be held, says CEC.

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday pronounced its verdict in a case pertaining to the delay in the local bodies polls in Punjab, ruling that local government elections in the country’s most populated province will be held in the last week of December 2025.

Headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Raja Sultan, the ECP bench also ruled that the delimitation process be started from Thursday. The delimitation process will be completed within two months.

Other members of the ECP bench include Nisar Durrani, Shah Muhammad Jatoi, and Babar Hassan Bharwana.

“The ECP will hold local body elections in Punjab under the 2022 law,” the bench ruled.

During the hearing today, the chief election commissioner expressed displeasure over the delay in the local government elections in Punjab, terming it an “embarrassment” for both the ECP and successive governments in the province.

“The local government elections have not been held in the country’s biggest province. It is not only an embarrassment for the election commission [ECP] but also for various governments [ruled during the delay],” CEC Raja remarked.

“All the governments that came into power did not want these elections to be held,” he added.

The chief election commissioner remarked that the time had come for the ECP to exercise its constitutional authority and take a decisive step.

CEC Raja also referred to a recent statement by a Punjab government minister, saying, “A minister said yesterday that Punjab and Islamabad are ready, but the ECP is delaying the process. They [Punjab ministers] themselves are delaying and blaming the ECP.”

In its judgment, the ECP maintained that the term of local governments in Punjab expired in December 2021, yet elections have not been conducted since.

The judgment read that Punjab government amended the local government laws five times in recent years. The ECP ruled that two separate local government laws were introduced in May 2019, followed by another amendment through an ordinance issued in December 2021.

According to the judgment, another new law was passed on June 24, 2022, and yet another on November 16, 2022. The ECP ruled that it had initiated the delimitation process in June 2020, but it was suspended at the request of the Punjab government.

The judgment read that a subsequent delimitation exercise was carried out between December 2021 and March 2022, followed by another round between 2022 and February 2023.

The ECP added that it had released the schedule for delimitation in June 2024, which was again withdrawn at the request of the Punjab government.