LAHORE: The Punjab government on Monday told the Lahore High Court (LHC) that the upcoming local government (LG) elections in the province would be held on a “party basis”.
An assistant advocate general (AAG) informed the court during the hearing of petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)-backed lawmaker Sheikh Imtiaz and others challenging the Punjab Local Government Act 2025 (PLGA).
The law officer also filed a report on behalf of the secretary of local government, which revealed that any political party wishing to contest the LG polls “may allow its candidates to contest elections for any political office on its party ticket”.
“Section 55 of the newly passed law does not, in any manner, put any party at a disadvantageous position compared to others,” he said.
At this, LHC Justice Sultan Tanvir Ahmad asked whether the petitioners’ grievance had been addressed, as the government itself was saying that the LG elections would be party-based.
“In that case, our concern to the extent of one point stood resolved. We requested that the government’s reply be made part of the record,” the petitioners’ lawyers said.
The judge also heard Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Director General (Law) Khurram Shahzad, who said the ECP was a constitutional body “ready to fulfil its duties”.
“The commission had written nearly 80 letters to the government over the past four years regarding holding local government elections and would conduct polls under whatever law the government enacted,” he maintained.
“The Punjab government had given a Jan 10 deadline for election preparations,” an ECP official added.
Justice Ahmad questioned why the advocate general’s office had not filed a formal reply to the petitions. He directed the advocate general to submit a reply by Tuesday.
“Certain provisions of the impugned Act appeared to be inconsistent with the Constitution,” the judge observed.
The judge also commented that the matter needed to be decided “promptly”.
In October, the ECP had announced holding the elections in the last week of December under the 2022 law.
Only after the ECP’s strong intervention and its announcement to hold local government elections under the PLGA 2022 in the last week of December did the Punjab government steamroll the new PLGA 2025 through the Punjab Assembly in just five days.
Responding to the developments, PTI legislators held detailed discussions with party lawyers and agreed to challenge the new Act in court.
In 2019, the then PTI-led Punjab government dissolved the local government institutions. These were later restored by the Supreme Court and subsequently completed their term on December 31, 2021. Consequently, the elections were supposed to be held by the end of April 2022.
Under Article 140-A of the Constitution and Section 219(4) of the Elections Act, the ECP is bound to hold polls within 120 days of the expiry of the term of the local government institutions.
