The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday announced it will hold local government (LG) elections in Punjab in April 2023, reported Aaj News.

In a meeting headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan, participants reached a consensus to hold LG elections in Punjab in the last week of April.

In September, the ECP had directed the Punjab provincial government to ensure immediate local government elections in the province.

ECP asks Punjab to hold LG polls soon

ECP officials said that frequent amendments to local government laws made by the provincial government were the main reason behind the delay.

The director general (law) of ECP told a meeting at the time that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had called for holding local government elections in the province and any further delay would be a violation of the apex court’s orders.

Karachi, Hyderabad local govt elections to take place on Jan 15

Back in August it was reported that the Punjab government had decided to amend the Local Government Act 2022 before holding the local bodies’ elections while considering the option of using the electronic voting machine in the polls.

“The Punjab government was taking all possible measures to hold local bodies’ elections in Punjab at the earliest. We have all the intention of transferring the power to the real representatives of the people at the grassroots level,” Punjab Local Government and Community Development Minister Mian Mahmood-ur-Rashid had said.

He had further said that after changing the previous local government law, it would conform to the vision of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) Imran Khan; a local government system will be established in the province in the true sense, under which local problems could be resolved by local representatives elected by the local community.

Meanwhile last week the ECP also announced that LG polls in Karachi and Hyderabad will take place on January 15.