By Zainab Ali
ISLAMABAD: With just one week remaining in the Local Government (LG) elections in the federal capital Islamabad, the government is going to move a bill in the national assembly today (Thursday) to increase the number of union councils in the capital city — a move largely being seen as a ploy to postpone the much-awaited elections.
According to the ‘Orders of the Day’ of the National Assembly for Thursday (today), Rana Sana Ullah Khan, Minister for Interior will introduce a bill further to amend the Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government Act, 2015 [The Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill, 2022]. Under the proposed legislation, elections would be held in 125 Union Councils and not in the existing 101 UCs of the Islamabad Capital Territory.
Latest government move
With the latest government move, the LG elections in Islamabad seem to be in jeopardy. The government’s move to introduce the new bill in the parliament just one week before the scheduled LG polls is indicative of the fact that the government wants to delay the local government elections. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has fixed December 31 as the polling day in Islamabad polls.
The federal cabinet on Monday decided that elections would be held in 125 union councils and not in the existing 101 UCs. The government, through the interior ministry, got a summary approved from the federal cabinet on Monday for new delimitation. However, the ECP didn’t agree with the government’s stance of postponing the polls till the new delimitations — a process that requires several months.
A day after the federal government moved to delay Local Bodies elections in the capital on the pretext of an increase in the number of union councils, the ECP said the elections would be held as per schedule on December 31.
A day earlier, in compliance with the decision of the federal government, the interior ministry immediately issued a letter, increasing the number of seats from the existing 101 to 125. This increase in the Union Councils requires new delimitations – a process that could take several months to complete. However, the election commission rejected the said letter as against the election law.
In the meantime, PTI leaders Asad Umar, Ali Nawaz Awan, Fawad Chaudhry, and Raja Khurram Nawaz have criticised the PML-N-led government for attempting to delay elections adding the government, after sensing defeat at the hands of PTI candidates in Islamabad, was trying to get the elections postponed.
