On March 19, 2014 the Supreme Court (SC) issued a judgement that empowered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to complete the delimitation process and hold the local government (LG) elections in the provinces and cantonment boards by Nov 15, 2014.

Balochistan is the only province to have conducted the elections within the deadline.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has announced to hold local bodies elections in June this year. But it seems Punjab and Sindh provinces will not be able to hold the elections till end of this year.

On March 5, 2015, ECP during the case hearing in SC proposed May 16, 2015 as the polling day for LG elections in the cantonment boards; June 7 in KP and suggested elections in Punjab and Sindh be held over three phases in January, February and March next year. The court rejected the schedule.

Both Punjab and Sindh provinces were expected to hold LG elections in early 2014 when the respective high courts stopped them in December 2013 on the pretext of irregularities in the delimitation process. More than 300,000 candidates filed their nomination papers in Sindh and Punjab for the process. In Punjab the LG elections were to be held on non-party basis while in Sindh on party basis.

The opposition parties in both provinces approached the higher courts to halt the process for attempts to gerrymander LG constituencies. The higher courts stopped both provinces from holding elections after the controversial delimitation of constituencies -- and empowered ECP to complete the process. The provinces were required to amend the present legislation over LG elections process to empower ECP for delimitation of constituencies for LG elections.

Both the provinces made necessary amendments in the respective acts but took a lot of time. The ECP could only initiate the process of delimitation of local governments after the receipt of complete information relating to notification of demarcation of local areas, determination of number of union councils/wards and authenticated maps from Punjab and Sindh governments.

"Sindh government has not provided us the required information of a single district while Punjab government has yet to provide information of six districts including Lahore," says a senior official of ECP. "ECP is conducting LG delimitation for the first time. This is a complicated process and needs a lot of support from local district administration and a strong political will at the provincial level. So far, both are lacking. Over the past many months, we have repeatedly written to Punjab and Sindh governments but have received no response. The provinces are in no mood to hold LG elections. ECP is totally dependent on the provinces."

It would take at least three to four months to complete the delimitation process for LG elections. To update the electoral rolls, the commission will need at least three months to include four million new voters, and to print 440 million ballot papers (310 million for Punjab and 130 million for Sindh). The election process will take at least 45 days. "This means ECP can hold elections in seven to eight months on condition that provinces start cooperating whole-heartedly with us," says the ECP official. "Courts also need to understand that election process takes times, giving deadlines has not served any purpose yet. SC needs to hold provincial governments responsible for elections."

Provincial authorities blame ECP and courts for the delay. "ECP is blaming the provincial governments for the delay. Actually the commission does not have the capacity to conduct LG elections. We were willing to hold elections early this year but courts halted the process. So, of course, there is political will to conduct LG elections," says a senior official of Local Government Department of Punjab.

Punjab government officials support the idea of LG elections on non-party basis. "There is always a chance that candidates representing the ruling party would win," says Ejaz Maharvi, member of Local Government Commission Punjab. "Punjab government has been cooperating with ECP but there are some capacity issues with the commission," he says.

Both the PML-N and PPP pledged in the 2013 election manifestos to hold LG election on party basis. The PML-N had assured to conduct LG elections within six months after assuming power. The section 10 of Charter of Democracy, signed and endorsed by both the PPP and PML-N leadership, clearly reads that local bodies’ elections will be held on party basis. Constitutional protection will be given to the local bodies to make them autonomous and answerable to their respective assemblies as well as to the people through regular courts of law. Further, Article 140A of the 18th Amendment stipulates, "each province shall, by law, establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local government."

The rivalries among political parties have also played a role in delaying LG elections. In Punjab, the PTI and PPP challenged the ruling party’s amendments in the local government legislation and delimitation process while in Sindh, where PPP is in power, the MQM challenged its local government’s act.

"There is a strong political will to not hold LG elections," says Sarwar Bari, national coordinator Pattan, an NGO lobbying for LG elections. "Sindh and Punjab governments consciously made the delimitation process controversial. They left no option for courts but to intervene."

Bari says in the current political system, the parties are unable to manage LG because they do not go beyond the central working committees; there is no parallel political system in place. "They have no local chapters. The LG system would fragment the local power structure and would dilute the powers of parliamentarians."

The constitution though mentions LG elections but unlike national and provincial assemblies elections it does not specify a timeframe for LG elections. "The political parties have not tried to address this lacuna in the 18th Amendment. ECP is not in a position to defy political masters. LG elections can be conducted in phases. This would save time," says Bari.

A survey conducted by Pattan found that more than 300,000 candidates submitted over Rs300 million to ECP as nomination fee while they had also spent almost Rs28 billion on their election campaign when the courts halted it.