The Punjab government has once again pushed the election in the local government into uncertainty by hurrying through a new law, Punjab Local Government Act 2025, just as the Pakistan Election Commission had begun by boundaries under the existing law of 2022.
The ECP had already notified its schedule for boundaries at Union Council level under Punjab Local Government ACT 2022 and initiated basic work throughout the province.
According to the Commission’s plan, preliminary delimitations will be completed by October 31, which will be shown in public on November 1, followed by objections until November 16 and the final publication on December 8.
The ECP had also set up 41 boundary committees at the Union’s advice level and 11 authorities to hear objections. It had excluded any change in the administrative boundaries of local authorities until the process was completed.
However, the provincial assembly’s sudden passage of Punjab Local Government Act 2025 has effectively thrown this process and the planned election in December to Limbo. The new law was passed on Tuesday in the midst of the parliament in parliament, with opposition members protesting on the move as an attempt to derail local votes.
Opposition legislators, led by MPA Moin Riaz Qureshi, demanded that today’s procedure be postponed due to the deteriorating law and order situation in the wake of Tehreek-E-Labbaik Pakistan’s protests. They shouted slogans, tore up copies of the bill, and accused the treasuries of bulldozing of legislation without debate.
Acting speaks Zaheer Iqbal Channar nevertheless approved the bill clause after clause when local government minister Zeeshan Rafique placed it before parliament.
The bill had been kept confidential even after the approval of the standing committee, and its introduction coincided with the ECP’s active implementation of the Act on 2022.
The Commission must decide whether to continue in accordance with the 2022 Act or cancel the current delimitation plan and begin again under the 2025 legislation – a step that would delay the polls for months, if no longer.
The move marks the fourth instance for about a decade that Punjab’s local elections have been derailed by regulatory changes. Punjab Local Government ACT 2013, adopted under the PML-N government, faced repeated delays until the polls were finally held in 2015.
The PTI Government Law of 2019 dissolved the selected bodies prematurely and promised a new system, but no choice ever followed. After PTI’s exhaust, it adopted the PML-N-LED Coalition 2022 Act, which was also never realized for election due to fresh boundaries and administrative restructuring.
Now, with the 2025 law, replacing it, the province is back to Square One, with elected local authorities still absent, and another round of bureaucratic and political cranges to begin.
Political observers say that successive governments, regardless of party, have repeatedly used regulatory maneuvering to maintain control over administrative and economic powers that constitutionally belong to local authorities. They claim that much of the routine development work performed by provincial departments should actually fall under the mandate of selected local organs.
Despite repeated insurance, observers notice, grassroots democracy in Punjab is evasive with each administration using legal and procedural changes to reset the clock when choosing local government.
