ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is all set to start the process of delimitation of constituencies and wards from December 21 — the fifth time — for holding local government elections in Islamabad.

The exercise will take over three months after which the fate of the local government polls would be decided.

The local government set-up in Islamabad completed its tenure in February 2021 and since then elections have been due.

During the last four years, the ECP several times issued schedules only to cancel them later on.

According to a notification, the process of administrative arrangements would be started on December 21 and the preparation of the preliminary lists of constituencies/wards will be held from January 6 to 30.

From February 1 to 15, objections could be filed. After several other procedures, the final list of constituencies/wards would be published on March 12, said the notification of ECP issued on December 12.

ECP says preparation of preliminary list of constituencies/wards will be held from January 6 to 30th

In September this year, the local government elections in Islamabad were postponed for the third time after the ECP issued a notification “to hold in abeyance” the election programme issued on Aug 20 till further orders.

According to the ECP notification of September, “Consequent upon the recent amendments made by parliament in Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act 2015 dated August 30, 2024, the Election Commission has decided to hold in abeyance the election programme issued vide its notification dated 20-08-2024 for conduct of local government elections in Islamabad Capital Territory, till further orders.”

Earlier, on August 20, the ECP had extended the poll schedule, deciding that the polling would be held on October 9, instead of the earlier announced date of September 29.

It had said the decision was taken at the request of local politicians.

However, the notification issued by ECP in September about postponing the polls came after amendments to the local government act which parliament had recently passed amid opposition from the PTI.

In the new bill, the government had increased the number of general seats of union councils (UCs) from six to nine and the seats of women from two to three.

Therefore, according to the increase in the number of seats, the ECP is now going to conduct the delimitation afresh.

When the amendments were passed in parliament, the PML-N chief whip in the National Assembly and MNA from Islamabad Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry had said if there was a little delay in the elections there should be no issue as “we want to introduce the best local government model in Islamabad like New Delhi and London”.

His views were supported by another PML-N MNA from Islamabad, Raja Khurram Nawaz. He said the government wanted to have a vibrant local government system to resolve issues of the public at the grassroots level.

Polls delay

Earlier, elections were all set to be held in 50 UCs, but the former PDM government said instead of 50 there should be 101 union councils in the federal capital. On this pretext, the elections were delayed.

Later, when arrangements were finalised to hold the elections in 101 UCs, the PDM government came up with a new idea of increasing the number of UCs from 101 to 125.

Then, elections were scheduled in 125 UCs, but in September the government came up with another idea of increasing the number of general seats in the UCs.

It may be noted that the last LG elections were held in 2016 which were won by PML-N and Sheikh Anser Aziz was elected as the first mayor of Islamabad. However, MCI failed to deliver as it could not get the patronage of the then-ruling party, the PML-N.

The MCI was neither given funds by the federal government nor were its financial rules finalised for the proper disposal of works.

Later, the PTI came to power at the centre but it also did not pay any heed to the MCI.

As a result, the first-ever local government completed its tenure without even paying the due honorarium to the union council (UC) chairmen.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2024