Local Body elections in Islamabad once again delayed

ISLAMABAD: Local body (LB) elections in the federal capital, Islamabad, have been postponed once again as ‘Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2024 becomes a law.

The scheduling of the local body elections in Islamabad has become unfeasible as President Asif Zardari has signed the ‘Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2024’.

The bill, ‘Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Bill 2024’ was approved by the National Assembly while suspending rules and then passed by the Senate.

Now after the signing of the bill by the president, it has now become a law.

In the new bill, the government has increased the number of general seats of union councils (UCs) from existing six to nine and the seats of women from two to three.

Public debt projected to rise to nearly Rs80 trillion

This means that a new delimitation of constituencies will be required which is a time-taking process. In that scenario, elections cannot be held on October 9 as scheduled.

On August 20, the local government elections saw a setback when ECP extended the schedule, deciding that the polling will be held on October 9, instead of the earlier announced date of September 29.

As per the existing schedule, the scrutiny of nomination papers for candidates would continue today. 

GOVT AVOIDING ELECTIONS, SAYS PTI

Former opposition leader in Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) and PTI leader Sheraz Kiani alleged that the government through new legislation was trying to avoid the elections.

“The knows PTI will win over 80pc seats in the local government elections and the new mayor will be from PTI; therefore, they want to avoid elections,” he said and added that high inflation and exorbitant electricity tariffs had badly affected residents of Islamabad and they were waiting to vote against the government as they did in the February 8 general elections. He said that this was third time the government was avoiding elections in the name of legislation.