ECP warns KP, Islamabad again over delays in local govt polls

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday again warned the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the federal authorities against delaying local government (LG) elections, directing them to submit all pending delimitation notifications ahead of the next hearing on July 28.

The tenure of LGs in KP ended on March 15 this year. According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013, local representatives are elected for a four-year term.

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.

The ECP took up separate cases regarding the conduct of LG polls in KP and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

In the KP case, the KP chief secretary and LG secretary appeared before a four-member bench headed by Member Sindh Nisar Ahmed Durrani. In the Islamabad case, the Islamabad chief commissioner and deputy commissioner were present.

On July 1, the commission had censured both governments for “unnecessarily delaying” polls, warning that “creating hurdles in the way of local government polls may attract serious consequences”.

In a five-page order, the bench noted that KP was not providing “meaningful assistance” as mandated by Article 220 of the Constitution (Executive authorities to assist Commission, etc.). Citing Supreme Court judgments 2014 SCMR 1 and 2021 SCMR 714, it said that non-assistance would amount to a constitutional violation.

The ECP recalled that on April 22 it had sought three documents for delimitation in 15 districts: tehsil-wise Neighbourhood Council (NC)/Village Council (VC) notifications, category-wise reserved seats, and authenticated maps. A reminder on May 15 drew an “unsatisfactory” reply.

As of July 1, KP had provided NC/VC numbers and reserved seats for only seven districts: Khyber, Bajaur, Mansehra, Upper Chitral, Shangla, Malakand and Kurram.

Notifications for the remaining eight — Karak, Hangu, D.I. Khan, Paharpur, Upper South Waziristan, Lower South Waziristan, Swat and Buner — were pending provincial assembly legislation. Four newly created districts also require inclusion in the Ninth Schedule of the KP LG Act, 2013.

Briefing the commission on Tuesday, the KP chief secretary said maps of 23 districts had already been provided and delimitation had been completed. In compliance with the July 1 order, he said maps of the remaining 15 districts had now been submitted.

He added that notifications for seven districts had been provided, while those for the remaining eight districts would be submitted after provincial approval.

The ECP directed that notifications for the eight pending districts be submitted before July 28 so that delimitation could begin in all districts and timely polls could be ensured.

Regarding Islamabad, the chief commissioner said a summary seeking notification of the town corporation limits and the number of union councils (UCs) in each had been sent to the Prime Minister’s Office. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday allowed the summary to be circulated for cabinet approval.

The commission noted that three key documents were still awaited for the ICT: the notification of the town corporation limits along with maps, the notification of the UCs in each town corporation, and legislation under the ICT Local Government (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026.

The ECP had earlier directed the chief statistician of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to provide maps and data to KP and to appear on July 7 (Tuesday). It also ordered the DCs of all 15 KP districts to submit maps and data before this date under Article 220 read with the Elections Act, 2017.

Noting that delimitation in 23 KP districts was complete, the commission ordered a consultative meeting on July 14 under Section 219(3) of the Elections Act to announce the poll date.

The hearing of both the KP and Islamabad cases was adjourned until July 28.