ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday warned the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government against delaying local government elections, saying it might summon Chief Minister Sohail Afridi if the process was not taken forward.
The warning came during a hearing on the prolonged delay in holding local government elections in KP, where the four-member ECP bench, headed by member Nisar Durrani, made one thing crystal clear: the polls have to happen.
The four-member bench, headed by ECP member Nisar Durrani, said the commission had several constitutional options at its disposal but made it clear that local government elections would have to be held.
Durrani said the provincial government was using delaying tactics and cautioned that the matter should not reach a point where the commission had to summon the chief minister.
“It should not come to a point where we have to summon the chief minister,” he warned.
The commission’s special secretary told the bench that delimitation had stalled in seven KP districts as the provincial government wanted the local government elections to be held simultaneously across the province.
He further informed the bench that the KP chief secretary had sought three weeks at the previous hearing, but the deadline has since passed with the matter still unresolved.
On the ECP’s instructions, a meeting of the provincial cabinet committee was held on Aug 31, while the provincial government also directed officials to review local government systems in other provinces.
The member of the bench from Balochistan also said the KP government was using delaying tactics, stressing that such delays could not be allowed to hold up the local government elections.
Appearing before the bench, the KP chief secretary Shahab Ali Shah told the bench that the provincial cabinet committee was considering amendments to the local government law.
The commission, however, observed that any amendment to the law could require the delimitation exercise to be carried out afresh, potentially causing further delay.
The ECP special secretary said that once the provincial government took a decision, the commission could conduct local government elections simultaneously across KP.
The commission gave the provincial government another three weeks to complete the required legislation and adjourned the hearing until September 29.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
Comments