ISLAMABAD: ECP halts KP local polls Punjab February 7 is the split decision the Election Commission of Pakistan announced this week, and it leaves voters in two provinces on very different paths. The commission has stopped all preparations for local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa until further orders, while it has fixed the first phase of local government elections in Punjab for 7 February 2027. The two decisions came out of the same meeting, and they show how one constitutional change can open polls in one province and close them in another.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa decision follows a federal government order, and the Federal Government Order 3 of 2026 is the document that changed everything. The order was issued by the Cabinet Division and published in the Gazette of Pakistan on 4 November, and it extends the suspension of Article 140-A of the Constitution to the whole province. Article 140-A Constitution local governments is the provision that makes elected local governments mandatory in the provinces, and its second clause makes holding local government elections the constitutional responsibility of the Election Commission.
The order did not come out of nowhere, because the governor rule emergency Khyber Pakhtunkhwa October 11 proclamation had already set the province on this course. On 11 October, an emergency was declared in the province under Articles 232 and 234 of the Constitution, on the grounds that the provincial government could not be carried on in accordance with the Constitution, and governor rule was imposed. An earlier federal order had already suspended Article 140-A in the designated districts under emergency measures, and the new order extends that suspension to every remaining district in the province.
The commission took up the order at a meeting on Thursday, and Sikandar Sultan Raja Chief Election Commissioner chaired the session. The members examined the second clause of the order in detail, and they were briefed that the suspension of Article 140-A had now been extended to all remaining districts beyond those already covered. After detailed deliberations, the commission concluded that holding local government elections in the remaining districts was no longer possible in view of the federal government order, so it ordered all steps taken so far to be suspended until further notice.
The decision is a sharp turn from where the commission stood only days earlier, because it had already decided to hold the polls in the districts outside the emergency areas. On 28 October, the commission had ordered that polls be held immediately in the districts where delimitation had been completed, excluding the 12 districts under special emergency measures, and preparations for the exercise had already begun. The new order has now made that plan impossible, and the work that had started has been put on hold.
Punjab tells a different story, and the Punjab local government elections February 7 2027 date is now fixed for the first phase. The commission accepted the Punjab government request to hold the polls after 20 January because of weather and administrative needs, and it set 7 February 2027 for the first phase. The Punjab schedule had earlier been discussed for December and January, and the February date gives the province more time to prepare. For Punjab voters, the wait for local governments is finally coming to an end.
The background shows just how overdue these polls are, and the delays have left a gap in local democracy for years. The local government term in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa expired in June, while in Punjab and the Islamabad Capital Territory the polls should have been held in May 2022 and June 2021. Questions have also been raised about the local polls planned in Islamabad for 20 December, because a petitioner has challenged the delimitation in the high court. For now, Punjab has a date, Islamabad has a question mark, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has no date at all.
The federal cabinet has also moved on the province administration, and it transferred the powers of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, who became non-functional after the imposition of governor rule and emergency, to Governor Faisal Karim Kundi. An Election Commission official told Dawn that the suspension of Article 140-A was framed as a consequence of the emergency, and it would remain in force until it is withdrawn, the emergency ends, or a court strikes it down. That means the local polls in the province depend on what happens to the emergency itself.
Readers should keep one point in mind as they follow this story. This is a decision about process and the Constitution, not about any party or candidate, and the commission has said it will revisit the matter when the federal order is lifted. The people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will have to wait for their local governments, while Punjab voters can now mark 7 February 2027 on their calendars. The next step will come from the courts, the federal government, or the end of the emergency, whichever comes first.
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