LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has formally withdrawn the schedule for Punjab’s local government elections following the passage of the Punjab Local Government Act 2025, effectively putting the long-delayed polls on hold once again.
The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, where members of the commission and senior officials reviewed the implications of the new law.
According to an official statement, the Punjab Assembly’s approval and the governor’s assent to the new act have repealed the Punjab Local Government Act 2022, under which the ECP had already begun the delimitation process for the planned December elections.
With the previous law no longer in effect, the commission decided to retract the delimitation schedule announced in September. “The schedule for local government elections in Punjab has been withdrawn,” the ECP said. It added that the provincial government has been given four weeks to frame new delimitation and demarcation rules under the 2025 Act, warning that no further extensions would be granted.
Officials said the move came at the Punjab government’s request, which sought time to finalise administrative arrangements and rules under the new framework. All delimitation work has now been halted until new regulations are approved.
The decision marks yet another delay in local government elections in the province — the fourth in nearly a decade. Punjab last held local body polls in 2015 under the 2013 Act. The PTI government dissolved those elected councils in 2019, promising a new system that never materialised. Later, the PML-N-led coalition passed the 2022 Act, which also failed to lead to elections amid procedural disputes.
Analysts say the repeated legal overhauls have weakened public confidence in the government’s commitment to devolution. Successive administrations, they argue, have used legislation as a tool to centralise authority rather than empower local representatives.
“The law keeps changing, but the outcome remains the same — no elections,” said a political analyst familiar with Punjab’s governance system. “This cycle shows a lack of political will to share power at the grassroots.”
For Punjab’s 120 million residents, the absence of elected local bodies means civic management, from sanitation to development planning, remains in bureaucratic control instead of accountable public offices.
Meanwhile, Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider Khan was briefed on the new Local Government Act 2025 at the Governor House in Lahore by Special Secretary for Local Government Arshad Baig.
During the briefing, Baig said the new act establishes five-year tenures for local bodies and sets the population benchmark for each union council at 25,000 people. Each council will comprise 13 members, including nine directly elected councillors and four on reserved seats — one each for women, youth, labour and minorities.
The chairman and vice-chairman will be elected internally by council members. Under the new rules, elected representatives must join a political party within one month of assuming office, and the ward system will be abolished.
The governor said devolution of power and delivery of basic services should remain top priorities, describing local governance as “the foundation of democracy.” He expressed hope that elections would be held soon under the new framework.
However, political observers noted confusion within the ruling coalition, with some PPP leaders privately expressing surprise at the ECP’s decision. One PPP figure said delaying elections “makes little sense” when the main opposition, PTI, remains politically constrained.
Whether Punjab can finalise new rules within the ECP’s four-week deadline — or faces yet another extension, will determine if the province moves closer to long-promised local democracy or remains mired in another round of delays.
