ISLAMABAD – The Election Commission of Pakistan [ECP] will soon send a reminder to the federal government for conducting long pending local bodies’ polls in Islamabad. The LG polls in Islamabad were scheduled to be held on October 9, 2025 but the government passed amended election bill, 2024, which mainly sought to increase the number of general members, from six to nine, in each of Islamabad’s 125 union councils. This amendment mainly becomes the reason for a new delimitation of constituencies.
According to the rules, the ECP has to immediately launch the delimitation exercise for Local Government (LG polls) afresh, in order to match the criteria after the increased number of general members or wards in the UCs. The body had earlier launched the delimitation exercise for the ICT LG polls around three months ago to complete it by July23. According to an amendment to Section-7 of Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2024, the ECP shall delimit union councils into nine wards for the election of members on the general seats. Previously, there were six wards in a union council.
The top election regulatory authority will remind the concerned quarters to make arrangements without delay as it has already been postponed for many times owing to different reasons, background discussions revealed. The CEC, around a month ago, had also warned to summon the prime minister if local bodies’ elections are not held in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
Talking to The Nation, former Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan [ECP] Kanwar Dilshad said The federal and provincial governments repeatedly delayed the local government (LG) polls. “This is a clear violation of Article 140-A,” he said, adding that there is a need to impose article-6 over the responsible behind it. He was of the view that issuing summons would not serve the purpose. Last year, The ‘Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2024’ from both the houses was dubbed as an attempt to postpone the LG polls in the federal capital ,scheduled to be held on October 09, 2025. The proposed amendment mainly sought to increase the number of general members, from six to nine, in each of Islamabad’s 125 union councils. This simply means that a new delimitation of constituencies will be required, which cannot be completed in a week or so.
The law binds the top electoral watchdog to immediately launch the delimitation exercise for Local Government (LG polls) afresh, in order to match the criteria after the increased number of general members or wards in theUCs.
The election regulatory body had earlier launched the delimitation exercise for the ICT LG polls around three months ago to complete it by July23.
At present, this local government system is functional in three provinces [Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan].
The polls, under Section 219(4) of the Elections Act 2017, is constitutionally necessary to be held within the 120-day stipulated period upon the expiry of respective terms.
The opposition parties, in both the houses of the parliament, had also registered their strong protest and blamed the government for deliberately delaying the polls.