The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday announced that local government elections in Islamabad will be held at the earliest possible date.

The commission has directed the relevant officials to immediately prepare an election schedule to ensure the restoration of the local government system at the urban level.

Declaring recent amendments to the Islamabad Local Government Act as unconstitutional, the ECP stated that assigning election responsibilities to union council secretaries is against the law.

According to the commission, only the ECP has the authority to appoint District Returning Officers (DROs) and Returning Officers (ROs), while union council secretaries do not meet the legal definition of government officers and therefore cannot serve as presiding officers.

The commission emphasised that the appointment and deployment of election officials will be carried out solely through ECP notifications.

Islamabad’s local government completed its term on February 14, 2021.

Under the constitution, the ECP and the federal government are required to conduct elections within 120 days, but the process has faced repeated delays due to various reasons.

So far, the ECP has issued delimitation notifications five times and announced election schedules on three occasions.

However, despite extensive correspondence with relevant institutions, the elections could not be held.