ECP summons interior minister over delay in LG polls in Islamabad – Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday summoned Home Minister Mohsin Naqvi over the delay in local government elections in the federal capital.

The term of the last local government in Islamabad expired in February 2021 and since then the elections have been delayed on various pretexts. As a result, around 2.5 million Islamabad residents continue to face problems ranging from water shortages to unpaved roads.

A five-member bench of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja, took up the issue of delay in holding local government elections in Punjab and Islamabad, according to a press release issued through the ECP.

During the hearing, Raja was informed that the ECP had sent three letters to the Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs requesting “demarcation of the municipal corporation, number of union councils in each municipal corporation, provision of maps of the municipal corporation as well as necessary amendments in the ordinance.”

However, ECP did not receive a response from the ministry.

In response, the Islamabad chief commissioner said that no such letter had been received, adding that the secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs was in a meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

“In his place, the additional secretary appeared before the ECP,” the statement read; However, the ECP took strict note of the secretary’s lack of response and ordered that a contempt notice be served on him.

The ECP further ordered Home Minister Mohsin Naqvi to appear in the next hearing. The Islamabad chief commissioner said the city corporation maps would be handed over to the ECP within a week.

The ECP then set a deadline of March 12 to address the matter.

Local government polls in Punjab

The five-member bench also took up the issue of delay in local government elections in Punjab, the press release said.

In this regard, Punjab Chief Secretary and Local Government Secretary appeared before the ECP.

During the hearing, the Punjab Chief Secretary informed the ECP that the provincial government has provided the ECP with “local government delimitation rules, demarcation order, containing the number of union councils in municipal corporations, municipal corporations, municipal committees and tehsil councils.”

The secretary also informed the ECP that “maps and other relevant data will be provided to the ECP by March 12, after which the provincial government will issue a notification on further election rules.”

The electoral commission issued instructions to “immediately publish the delimitation schedule as soon as the provincial government provides the maps.”

According to the statement, the provincial government was told that if it does not provide maps, the ECP will call the deputy divisional commission on a daily basis starting March 13,” so that they can provide the maps to the ECP.

ECP adjourned the hearing until March 10.

The elections were supposed to be held on February 15. However, despite the publication of the electoral calendar and the submission of thousands of nomination papers from 125 union councils, the government introduced amendments to the Local Government Act.

This resulted in the cancellation of the electoral calendar.

The Pattan-Coalition 38 (a network of associations, community organizations, unions and human rights activists), in a research report published last month, had argued that the repeated postponement of local government elections in Islamabad (six times in five years) represented a direct attack on grassroots democracy and raises serious concerns about the ECP’s subordination to the executive.