The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday announced its verdict on the long-delayed local government (LG) elections in Punjab, ruling that polls in the country’s most populous province will be held in the last week of December 2025.
The decision was issued by a bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, which also directed that the delimitation process begin on Thursday and be completed within two months. The bench included members Nisar Durrani, Shah Muhammad Jatoi, and Babar Hassan Bharwana.
In its ruling, the ECP stated that the Punjab local government elections will be conducted under the 2022 law. During the hearing, CEC Raja expressed strong dissatisfaction over the prolonged delay, terming it an “embarrassment” for both the Election Commission and successive provincial governments.
He criticized all previous governments in Punjab, asserting that none had shown willingness to hold the elections. “All the governments that came into power did not want these elections to be held,” he remarked, adding that the ECP had now decided to exercise its constitutional authority.
The CEC also responded to a recent statement by a Punjab minister claiming that the province was ready for elections while the ECP was causing delays. Raja rejected the claim, saying provincial authorities themselves were responsible for repeated postponements.
The judgment noted that the term of local governments in Punjab expired in December 2021, but elections have not been held since then. It also highlighted that the Punjab government had amended local government laws five times in recent years, repeatedly disrupting the process.
The ECP mentioned that delimitation exercises initiated in 2020, 2021, and 2022 were suspended or withdrawn at the province’s request, most recently in June 2024.
