EDITORIAL: There should be no remaining excuse for delaying local government elections where the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is ready to conduct them. Its latest review reveals legal or administrative obstacles across several jurisdictions, from pending responses in Punjab and legislation in Islamabad to unresolved delimitation issues elsewhere. These requirements must now be completed in accordance with the law and without further procrastination.
Governments cannot be allowed to create, prolong or simply neglect procedural hurdles and then cite those same hurdles as reasons why citizens must continue waiting for elected local representation.
The constitutional principle is clear. Article 140A requires every province to establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to elected representatives, while responsibility for conducting local government elections rests with the ECP. That constitutional arrangement deserves far greater respect than Pakistan’s political governments have historically shown it. Local elections have repeatedly suffered delays, changing laws, fresh delimitations and administrative manoeuvering, turning what should be a routine democratic exercise into an intermittent political concession.
That reluctance reveals the deeper problem. Local government represents democracy at the level where citizens encounter the state most frequently. Municipal services, sanitation, local infrastructure, neighbourhood development and numerous everyday problems require responsive institutions close to the communities affected by them. Provincial capitals cannot efficiently administer every street, neighbourhood and district, nor should provincial legislators be expected to function as substitute councillors. A functioning federation requires authority to travel downward rather than accumulate indefinitely at the top.
Yet Pakistan’s political parties have traditionally been far more enthusiastic about devolution when power is moving towards them than when they are required to pass it further down. Provincial autonomy is vigorously defended, while meaningful local autonomy often encounters hesitation. The reason is hardly mysterious. Genuine local government requires provincial administrations to surrender authority over functions, development spending and administrative decisions to elected representatives closer to the grassroots. That inevitably reduces the patronage and political influence concentrated at provincial level.
There is considerable irony in Pakistan’s experience under General Pervez Musharraf. His military government introduced the Devolution of Power Plan in 2000, followed by elected local governments under the 2001 ordinances, transferring substantial administrative responsibilities to district governments. The system had serious weaknesses, including its creation under an unelected military regime and the absence of an elected provincial tier during its formative period. Yet it represented one of the country’s most ambitious attempts at institutionalised devolution to the district and local levels. Democratic governments that followed have repeatedly struggled to provide local government with comparable continuity and political ownership.
That contradiction should trouble political parties claiming democratic legitimacy. Democracy cannot logically stop at the provincial assembly. Periodic national and provincial elections accompanied by prolonged gaps in elected local representation leave the democratic structure incomplete. Nor should every electoral cycle require the ECP to chase governments for legislation, notifications, data, and other prerequisites that should have been completed routinely and well in advance.
The commission should therefore proceed firmly within its constitutional and statutory authority, while federal and provincial governments must remove every legitimate outstanding obstacle promptly. Where laws require amendment, amend them. Where delimitation data are required, provide them. Where statutory requests or administrative lists are necessary, there is little justification for withholding them.
Pakistan’s politicians have spent decades demanding that power be devolved to the people. The difficulty, apparently, begins when the people live below the provincial capital.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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