ECP again warns K-P, ICT over LG polls delay

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday again warned the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government and the federal authorities against delaying local government (LG) elections, directing them to submit all pending delimitation notifications before July 28.

The tenure of the LGs in the K-P ended on March 15 this year. Under the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013, local representatives are elected for a four-year term.

The term of the last local government in Islamabad expired in February 2021, and elections have since been delayed under various pretexts, leaving around 2.5 million residents without elected local representatives. The ECP heard separate cases regarding LG elections in the K-P and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

In the K-P case, Chief Secretary Shehab Ali Shah, the provincial LG secretary and officials of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) appeared before a four-member bench headed by ECP Member from Sindh Nisar Ahmed Durrani.

Islamabad chief commissioner and deputy commissioner also appeared in the ICT case.

The commission recalled that on July 1 it had censured both governments for "unnecessarily delaying" the elections, warning that creating hurdles in the conduct of LG polls could attract serious consequences.

In its earlier five-page order, the ECP observed that the K-P government was not providing "meaningful assistance" to the commission as required under Article 220 of the Constitution.

Citing Supreme Court judgments reported as 2014 SCMR 1 and 2021 SCMR 714, it held that failure to assist the commission amounted to a constitutional violation.

The ECP noted that on April 22 it had sought three documents required for delimitation in 15 districts: tehsil-wise notifications of Neighbourhood Councils (NCs) and Village Councils (VCs), category-wise reserved seats, and authenticated maps.

A reminder issued on May 15 had received what the commission termed an unsatisfactory response.