Legal setbacks, divisions push PTI to the brink in Punjab LG elections

ISLAMABAD: Amid internal divisions and legal complications, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is staring at a potential political whitewash in the upcoming local government elections in Punjab.

PTI’s disarray — both organisationally and legally — could cost it complete exclusion from the provincial local polls. The party’s unresolved intra-party election case threatens to bar it from issuing required party certificate to its winning candidates.

As mandated by the new law, the winning candidates will have to join any “party” within 30 days of their notification.The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday announced that the local government elections in Punjab would be held under the newly approved Punjab Local Government Act 2025, replacing the 2022 version. According to the new law, elections will be conducted on a non-party basis, with each Union Council (UC) comprising nine directly elected councillors.

However, the development poses a serious setback for the PTI. Despite having several senior lawyers among its top leadership, the party has failed to complete the procedural and legal formalities required for participation.

Legal experts are of the opinion that in the absence of a final decision on PTI’s intra-party elections by the ECP, the PTI will not be in a position to either field its candidates to participate in the election or issue the necessary party declaration to the PTI-backed winning candidates to join PTI as “party” within 30 days of their notification as mandated by the new law.

The intra-party election dispute has been pending before the ECP for the past 19 months, with little progress due to lack of seriousness from PTI’s leadership and legal team. The combination of these factors -- unresolved legal disputes, internal groupings -- has left PTI’s political prospects in Punjab bleak. Otherwise, a popular political force in the province, the party now faces the grim possibility of being absent from the local government institutions altogether.

Independent observers foresee the situation where the PTI despite its popularity will see further shrinking of its political impact in the present system. Unless a major legal or political breakthrough occurs in the coming weeks, the Punjab local government elections would give the PTI a serious jolt in the province, which primarily decides the power politics in Pakistan.