The Punjab government has once again pushed local government elections into uncertainty by rushing through a new law, the Punjab Local Government Act 2025, just as the Election Commission of Pakistan had begun delimitations under the existing 2022 law.
The ECP had already notified its schedule for delimitations at the union council level under the Punjab Local Government Act 2022 and commenced groundwork across the province.
According to the commission’s plan, preliminary delimitations will be completed by October 31, displayed publicly on November 1, followed by objections until November 16 and final publication on December 8.
The ECP had also set up 41 delimitation committees at the union council level and 11 authorities to hear objections. It had barred any change in the administrative limits of local government areas until the process was complete.
However, the provincial assembly’s sudden passage of the Punjab Local Government Act 2025 has effectively thrown that process, and the planned December elections, into limbo. The new law was passed on Tuesday amid uproar in the house, where opposition members protested the move as an attempt to derail local polls.
Opposition lawmakers, led by MPA Moin Riaz Qureshi, demanded that the day’s proceedings be postponed due to the deteriorating law and order situation in the wake of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s protests. They shouted slogans, tore up copies of the bill, and accused the treasury benches of bulldozing the legislation without debate.
Acting Speaker Zaheer Iqbal Channar nevertheless approved the bill clause by clause, as Local Government Minister Zeeshan Rafique tabled it before the house.
The bill had been kept confidential even after approval by the standing committee, and its introduction coincided with the ECP’s active implementation of the 2022 law. The Punjab government will now issue a gazette notification for the new act and frame accompanying election rules, which will then be sent to the ECP.
The commission must decide whether to proceed under the 2022 law or cancel the current delimitation schedule and begin afresh under the 2025 legislation — a step that would delay the polls by several months, if not longer.
The move marks the fourth instance in roughly a decade that Punjab’s local elections have been derailed by legislative changes. The Punjab Local Government Act 2013, passed under the PML-N government, faced repeated delays until polls were finally held in 2015.
The PTI government’s 2019 Act dissolved those elected bodies prematurely, promising a new system, but no elections ever followed. After the PTI’s ouster, the PML-N-led coalition enacted the 2022 Act, which also never materialised into elections due to fresh delimitations and administrative restructuring.
Now, with the 2025 Act replacing it, the province is once again back to square one, with elected local governments still absent and another round of bureaucratic and political wrangling set to begin.
Political observers say successive governments, regardless of party, have repeatedly used legislative manoeuvring to retain control over administrative and financial powers that constitutionally belong to local governments. They argue that much of the routine development work being carried out by provincial departments should, in fact, fall under the mandate of elected local bodies.
Despite repeated assurances, observers note, grassroots democracy in Punjab remains elusive with each administration using legal and procedural changes to reset the clock on local government elections.
