ECP revises schedule for delimitation of union councils in Punjab

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced a revised timeline for the delimitation of union councils in Punjab.

As per the timetable, the complaints on delimitation can be submitted till July 4 while the results on the objections on limits of union councils would be announced by July 29.

The last deadline for notifying the Punjab union council delimitation committees about the decisions has been fixed for August 7.

The timetable further mentioned that the final list of Punjab union council delimitations will be released on August 17.

The definitive timetable of elections for local government in Punjab will be announced after the completion of the process of delimitation.

BACKGROUND

Local government polls in Punjab have been deferred several times since 2019. The erstwhile Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) provincial government disbanded the local government entities in April that year. The Supreme Court later reversed the order and restored the elected bodies. They then served out their constitutional term on 31 December 2021.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is obligated by Article 140-A of the Constitution and Section 219(4) of the Elections Act to hold local government elections within 120 days of the expiry of the term of local councils. Therefore, the polls should have been held by the end of April 2022.

However, the Punjab administration delayed the polls by making a number of revisions to the province’s local government statute and the voting process was delayed repeatedly.

ECP announces local government elections in December 2025 on October 8, 2025 The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asked the Punjab administration to immediately start the process of delimitation of constituencies with orders to complete the procedure within two months.

The revision was made within less than two weeks of the Punjab government’s passing of the Punjab Local Government Act, 2025. Following the passage of the new law, the ECP withdrew the delimitation schedule prepared under the 2022 law and directed the province administration to prepare fresh delimitation and demarcation guidelines within four weeks.

Later, on October 31, 2025, the ECP said local government elections in Punjab could not be held before the second quarter of 2026, as there were no legal and administrative prerequisites to conduct the polls.