Commission accepts provincial proposal at Islamabad consultation; Punjab has not elected local governments since 2015
LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Thursday agreed in principle to the Punjab government’s proposal to hold local government elections between December 15, 2026 and January 15, 2027, ending — at least provisionally — an eleven-year gap in grassroots representation in the country’s largest province.
The decision came at a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja at ECP headquarters. Punjab was represented by a four-member cabinet committee headed by Local Government Minister Zeeshan Rafiq, with Mines and Minerals Minister Sardar Sher Ali Gorchani, Agriculture Minister Syed Muhammad Ashiq Hussain Shah and Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat. The Punjab chief secretary and the local government special secretary also attended, alongside ECP members, the ECP secretary and senior commission officials.
The proposed window was defended on practical grounds: school examinations will have concluded by mid-December, and the period avoids the dense fog that disrupts movement and polling logistics in central Punjab at other points in winter.
The Punjab chief secretary told the meeting the province wanted polling conducted in phases, citing security arrangements and administrative capacity. The Commission asked the provincial government to submit a phasing plan early if it intends to proceed that way.
Punjab last held local government elections in 2015, conducted in phases between October and December under the Punjab Local Government Act, 2013. The elected councils did not assume office until 2017. The intervening years produced a pattern the ECP has described publicly: successive provincial governments repeatedly amended or replaced the local government law, and each legislative change forced the Commission to restart preparations, including delimitation and election planning.
On July 31, 2026, the ECP stated it was ready to hold polls in Punjab and in 23 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and attributed the stall to repeated last-minute amendments by federal and provincial governments. In an earlier assessment on October 31, 2025, the Commission had said Punjab polls would not be feasible before the second quarter of 2026.
The delimitation exercise for Punjab union councils ran on a seven-stage schedule notified under Article 222(b) of the Constitution, the Elections Act 2017, the Punjab Local Government Act 2025 and the Delimitation Rules 2026. Hearings on objections concluded, decisions were communicated to delimitation committees in early August, and the final list of constituencies was published on August 17. The ECP had also ordered a freeze on administrative boundary changes in Punjab until the exercise was complete.
The Punjab cabinet, at its 36th meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, approved Rs12.52 billion for conducting the elections and cleared recruitment of more than 900 union council secretaries — an administrative prerequisite for functioning local bodies.
Thursday’s consultation was convened under Section 219(3) of the Elections Act, 2017, read with Section 59 of the Punjab Local Government Act, 2025 and Rule 5(1) of the Punjab Local Government (Election) Rules, 2026.
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