he long due local government elections in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) are expected to be held by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in consultation with the new government after the completion of the ongoing delimitation process by end of May.

Last year in March, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ordered the recently deposed government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) to hold timely local body elections. The previous local government in Islamabad completed its term in February 2021. The then ruling PTI wanted to hold the local body polls in the ICT under the controversial Local Government Ordinance 2021. However, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) dismissed the law in March, a couple of weeks before the PTI regime was toppled by the opposition alliance through a no-confidence vote. The government had failed to get the ordinance approved by the parliament. The ordinance was promulgated by the president in November 2021 and expired after 120 days (in February).

A few days back, the IHC issued a detailed judgment declaring the LG Ordinance 2021 introduced by the PTI-led government invalid and directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct local government elections under the Local Government Act, 2015.

“In a nutshell, the federal government being the state representative of [the] people of Islamabad is bound to follow the mandate of [the] Constitution to provide and extend every cooperation to the ECP under Article 140-A of the Constitution for [the] establishment of local government in Islamabad, failing which rights of citizens in terms of Article 17 stand negated, and the scheme adopted by the federal government through temporary ordinance seems to be against the mandate of constitutional guarantee where it is necessary to devolve the political administration and financial responsibilities through elected representatives of the local government, [and] as such the ordinance fails the test constitutionally and observations of the fundamental rights of people of Islamabad, even the reasons for promulgation of the ordinance are not legally justiciable under Articles 4, 10, 17 and 25 of the Constitution as the ordinance lacks the basic theme, which is a temporary legislation eliminating the permanent legislation.”

The court also observed that the PTI government had used all kinds of tactics to delay the local government elections in the federal capital. The court maintained that the (previous) federal government had applied every method to delay the electoral process for the local government to meet their own design though they were unable to enact the law as per their own choice, and instead opted to create a regime through temporary legislation though the ordinance cannot permanently repeal a permanent Act.

The court also observed that the federal government did not assist the ECP in performance of its statutory duty regarding provision of maps and notification for delimitation. The ECP notified a delimitation committee on April 30. The court maintained that despite the ordinance the rules have not been framed by the Ministry of Interior which has created a difficult situation, especially when the Local Government Ordinance was not in conformity with the Constitution of Pakistan, the Election Commission Act 2017 and the Capital Development Authority Ordinance 1960.

Earlier, the ECP had informed the court that the federal government was not cooperating with it for holding the local government elections in Islamabad, and had not even attended the meetings convened to hold elections.

The ECP has notified a new schedule for the delimitation process in Islamabad. It says it is set to publish the final list of constituencies/ wards by end of May after completing various procedures.

“The ECP is all set to hold delayed by-polls in the ICT at the earliest after displaying the revised delimitations,” Haroon Shinwari, spokesperson of the commission tells The News on Sunday. “We were ready for the elections previously too under the new LG Ordinance introduced by the PTI government but the ordinance was challenged in the court. Later, the court set it aside and the commission had to go for a revision of delimitations as per the old local government law.” He says the ECP will be ready to hold local government polls at the earliest, in consultation with the new government.

The writer is a staff reporter. He can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com. He tweets at @waqargillani