ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — The Islamabad High Court on Friday suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan’s schedule for local government elections in the capital, which had been due on December 20.
Granting a stay on a petition filed by a citizen, Amjad Ali, the court also suspended the commission’s October 21 notification, and issued notices to the commission and other respondents to reply by November 26, when it will hear the case again.
The petition argues that the constituencies were drawn under a law that no longer applies. An ordinance issued this year created three town corporations in Islamabad and raised the number of union councils from 125 to 130, with boundaries based on census blocks. When the ordinance lapsed in September, the 2015 Local Government Act came back into force, and on October 21 the commission decided to hold the polls under it.
The petitioner’s lawyer argued that the commission had not divided the 125 union councils into nine wards each, as the restored law requires, and that holding the elections without fresh delimitation would breach Article 218(3) of the Constitution and waste public money.
Five years without a council
Islamabad has had no elected local government since the last council’s term ended in February 2021, although the Elections Act requires new polls within 120 days. The commission has drawn constituencies six times and announced election schedules four times since then. A schedule for polling on February 15 this year was withdrawn after the January ordinance changed the system.
The ruling came a day after Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja accused the federal government of trying to sabotage the polls by barring teachers from election duty, and said the elections would be held as scheduled.
