ECP withdraws delimitation plan in Punjab after passage of new law

ISLAMABAD: Less than two weeks after announcing the programme for the delimitation of constituencies for holding local government polls in Pakistan’s largest province of Punjab, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has withdrawn this schedule following the passage of the new LG law by the provincial legislature.

The decision was taken in a high-level ECP meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, and attended by senior ECP officials on Tuesday.

The meeting was briefed that with the passage of Local Government Act 2025 by the Punjab Assembly, the electoral body cannot continue with its delimitation drive for LG polls that was launched under LG Act 2022.

After the passage of the new law, holding a delimitation drive under the old law would be a violation of Section 219 (1) of the Elections Act, 2017, briefed the ECP officials concerned in the meeting.

This law provides that the ECP shall conduct LG elections under the applicable LG law in a province, cantonment, or the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

The meeting decided to withdraw the Punjab LG delimitation schedule, and give Punjab government four weeks to frame the delimitation rules under the new law.

On 9 October, the ECP issued a delimitation programme for holding LG elections in Punjab. According to this schedule, the delimitation process started on 12 October, and it was to conclude this 8 December.

Presently, the local bodies are in place in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and cantonment boards, but LG elections in Punjab and the federal capital have been facing an inordinate delay since 2021.

The local bodies’ term in the ICT expired on 14 February 2021 and in Punjab on 31 December 2021.

Legally, the electoral body is bound to hold LG elections within 120 days of the expiry of the relevant local bodies’ term, under Section 219(4) of the Elections Act, 2017.

The ECP says that whenever it finalises the LG polls’ preparations, the LG laws are amended by the governments concerned, causing a delay in the elections.

According to the electoral body, it carried out delimitation exercises multiple times in Punjab and ICT for LG elections before the LG laws were amended each time by the governments concerned, shortly after the related poll schedules were issued.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025