The Islamabad High Court (IHC) put the Election Commission’s timetable for the capital’s local polls on hold on Friday. The timetable had set voting for December 20. The suspension lasts until the next hearing on November 26, Dawn reported.
It is the latest setback in a process that has been stuck for almost six years. Islamabad has had no elected local government since the last one’s term ended in February 2021.
What the court said
A single-member bench headed by Justice Umair Majeed Malik heard a writ petition filed last week by Chaudhry Amjad Ali. The petition challenges the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) short order of October 21, 2026, and the schedule issued with it. The bench ruled that the operation of the order and of the schedule, “as revised by the Election Commission”, would stay suspended until the next hearing. It also issued notices to the respondents and told them to file reports and comments by then.
The petitioner’s lawyers cite Articles 140-A(2), 218(3) and 219(d) of the Constitution, which they say oblige the ECP to run local elections honestly, justly, fairly and within the law. Their case is that the commission cannot hold polls until the legal status of the present delimitation of constituencies is settled. The court said the points raised needed consideration.
Why the law matters: two systems, one election
The dispute comes down to which local government law applies, and what each one means for the map of the capital. This is how the petition describes it:
| LG Act 2015 | LG Ordinance 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Top body | One metropolitan corporation | Three town corporations |
| Union councils | 125, each with nine wards | 130, with no nine-ward structure |
| Basis of delimitation | Wards | Census blocks |
According to the petition, the ECP began delimiting under the 2015 Act in December 2024 and issued an election programme on December 26, 2025, which it later withdrew. After the 2026 ordinance changed the structure, the ECP revised its delimitation timelines on August 25 and published a final list of 130 union councils on October 14. But the ordinance lapsed under Article 89 of the Constitution after a single 120-day extension, so the 2015 Act came back into force. The lawyers say the ECP then issued its October 21 order for polls under the 2015 law without dealing with the delimitation of 125 union councils and their wards.
They argue that delimitation done under the ordinance cannot serve for elections under the revived Act, and that fresh delimitation and new electoral rolls are needed. Holding polls without it, they say, would breach Article 218(3) and waste public money. These are the petitioner’s arguments, and the court has not yet decided them.
Background: a long list of delays
Our earlier reports on the ECP’s October order for polls under the 2015 law, the December 20 schedule and the National Assembly committee’s bill that cast doubt on that date trace how the capital got here. In all, delimitation in Islamabad has been carried out six times and schedules issued four times, according to an ECP special secretary at an earlier hearing. The only local elections held in the capital were in 2015, for 50 union councils.
On Thursday, a day before the court’s order, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja said the federal government was trying to sabotage the polls, after it directed that teachers should not be assigned election duty. He said the ECP would hold the elections as scheduled. The reports we have seen carry no reply from the government or the ECP to Friday’s order.
Why it matters
For people in the capital, this decides who looks after local services. Without elected councils, such matters as sanitation, local roads and neighbourhood development depend on officials. Article 140-A of the Constitution calls for fresh polls within 120 days of a term ending, and that period ended long ago.
The court has so far taken no view on who is right. But the case exposes a problem that predates this order: when a law changes in the middle of an election cycle, the maps drawn under the old rules may not fit the new ones.
What happens next
- The respondents named in the petition have to file their comments before November 26.
- The court will then hear arguments on whether the delimitation under the 2015 Act is complete.
- Until then the December 20 date, and the four days the ECP had reserved from December 21 to 24 for consolidating results, cannot be relied on.
The question the court must answer is simple to state. Which map applies to which law?
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