ISLAMABAD - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday announced the schedule for the upcoming local government elections in Islamabad. The polling in the capital city will take place on September 29, according to the announced schedule. The ECP gave a four-day window for candidates to submit their nomination papers. The initial list of candidates will be published on August 21, while the ECP will scrutinise the nomination papers from August 22 to 26.
As per the schedule, appeals against decisions to accept or reject the nomination papers can be filed from August 26 to 29. The Appellate Tribunals will decide the appeals by September 3 and the final list will be published on September 4. As per the ECP’s schedule, electoral symbols will be allotted on September 6. Earlier, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sultan Akram Raja said that the ECP is prepared to conduct the Local Government (LG) polls in Punjab. The local government elections are long due in the capital as the It is pertinent to mention here that the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had directed the Election Commission to announce the date for Local Body elections in Islamabad by July 10. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, while hearing a case regarding the non-conduct of local government elections, emphasized the need for a clear schedule.
The court noted that 125 union council constituencies have already been demarcated, and there is no need for further delimitation. Justice Kayani remarked that both the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court have previously decided that local government elections should be held. During the proceedings, the ECP officials stated that a schedule has been provided regarding constituencies. However, Justice Kayani instructed the ECP lawyer not to mix union council constituencies with National Assembly constituencies, questioning the need for new constituencies every two or three months. The judge warned that if the ECP fails to provide the election date, he will issue contempt of court notices to both the federal government and the ECP. Justice Kayani also questioned the officials about the delay in holding local government elections, remarking that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has been destroying the entire city in the name of the Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad (MCI), imposing billions in taxes without the authority of a local government.
The Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad was formed in 2016 following first ever local government elections in Islamabad in Nov 2015 and Sheikh Anser Aziz of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz was chosen as first Mayor of the Capital. However, during its five-years term, the MCI failed to deliver as neither the PML-N nor the PTI governments showed any interest to practically own the local government setup. Later, the federal government had clipped all the major wings of MCI by returning many directorates to the administrative control of CDA in October 2020 on the pretext of “ensuring smooth and effective service delivery in the capital city and to ease the difficulties being faced by its citizens.”
In the last elections, the 70 members house had a majority of PML-N with 46 members including 11 independent candidates, who joined the party after independently managing to win the election while the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had 24 members in the house. Pakistan Peoples’ Party could not get even a single seat at that time however now a number of candidates are preparing to step into the elections because their parties are in coalition in the Federal government. However, reliable sources informed that the top leadership of both parties don’t want local government elections as it will create several problems for the multi-party ruling alliance before the next general elections.