The Punjab government has once again thrown local elections into uncertainty by hastily passing a new law, the Punjab Local Government Act 2025, just as the Election Commission of Pakistan had started delimitation under the existing Act 2022.
The ECP had already notified its schedule of demarcations at the union council level under the Punjab Local Government Act, 2022 and has started preparatory work across the province.
According to the commission’s plan, preliminary delineations will be completed by October 31, publicly published on November 1, followed by objections until November 16 and a final publication on December 8.
The ECP has also set up 41 union council level delimitation committees and 11 authorities to hear objections. He had banned any changes to the administrative boundaries of local government areas until the process was completed.
However, the provincial assembly’s sudden passage of the Punjab Local Government Act, 2025 has effectively thrown this process, as well as elections scheduled for December, into limbo. The new law was passed Tuesday amid an uproar in the House, where opposition members protested the move, calling it an attempt to derail local elections.
Opposition lawmakers, led by MPA Moin Riaz Qureshi, demanded that the day’s proceedings be postponed due to the deteriorating law and order situation following the Tehreek-e-Labbaik protests in Pakistan. They shouted slogans, tore up copies of the bill and accused the Treasury benches of bulldozing the legislation without debate.
Acting President Zaheer Iqbal Channar, however, approved the bill clause by clause, while Local Government Minister Zeeshan Rafique tabled it in the House.
The bill remained confidential even after its approval by the standing committee, and its introduction coincided with the active implementation of the 2022 law by the ECP. The Punjab government will now issue a gazette notification regarding the new law and the framework accompanying the election rules, which will then be sent to the ECP.
The commission must decide whether to proceed under the 2022 law or whether to overturn the current redistricting schedule and start again under the 2025 legislation — a move that would delay the election by months or more.
This is the fourth case in about a decade where local elections in Punjab have been derailed by legislative changes. The Punjab Local Government Act, 2013, passed under the PML-N government, faced repeated delays until elections were finally held in 2015.
The PTI government’s 2019 law prematurely dissolved these elected bodies, promising a new system, but no elections ever followed. After the PTI’s ouster, the PML-N-led coalition enacted the 2022 Act, which also never materialized into elections due to new demarcations and administrative restructuring.
Now, with the 2025 Act replacing it, the province is back to square one again, with elected local governments still absent and a new round of bureaucratic and political wrangling about to begin.
Political observers say successive governments, regardless of party, have repeatedly resorted to legislative maneuvers to maintain control of administrative and financial powers that constitutionally belong to local governments. They argue that much of the day-to-day development work carried out by provincial departments should, in fact, fall within the mandate of elected local bodies.
Despite repeated assurances, observers note, popular democracy in Punjab remains elusive, with each administration resorting to legal and procedural changes to reset the local election clock.
