ECP postpones local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as Article 140-A suspension spreads across the province
The Election Commission of Pakistan has suspended all preparations for local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa until further orders, after the federal government extended the suspension of Article 140-A of the Constitution to every district in the province.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has postponed local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, suspending all preparations until further orders after the federal government extended the suspension of Article 140-A of the Constitution to the entire province.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Election Commission in Islamabad on Thursday, 5 November, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja. The commission examined the federal government's Order No. 3, issued on 4 November 2026, and concluded that it could no longer hold local government polls in the districts that had remained outside the earlier restrictions.
Clause 2 of the order extended the suspension of Article 140-A to all districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, beyond those already covered when governor's rule and an emergency were imposed in the province on 11 October. Article 140-A requires the provinces to establish elected local governments and devolve political, administrative and financial authority to them, while its sub-clause (2) places the responsibility for conducting local government elections on the Election Commission.
The commission said that holding local government elections was its constitutional responsibility under that provision, but that the federal order had made it impossible to proceed. An ECP spokesperson said the suspension of Article 140-A had now been applied to all other districts as well, and that every step taken so far to organise the elections in the province had been put on hold until further notice.
The postponement marks a reversal of the commission's own position only a week earlier. On 28 October, the ECP had ordered that local government polls be held immediately in the districts where delimitation had been completed, excluding the 12 districts placed under special emergency measures, and preparations had begun in the remaining districts. That process has now been halted in full.
The backdrop is the emergency and governor's rule imposed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on 11 October, when the federal government cited what it described as the provincial government's deliberate disengagement from the fight against terrorism. On Wednesday, the federal cabinet transferred the powers of the chief minister, who had become non-functional after the imposition of governor's rule, to Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, saying the move was meant to keep administrative affairs running during the emergency.
The order extending the Article 140-A suspension was issued by the Cabinet Division and published in the Gazette of Pakistan on 4 November. It referred to the imposition of emergency and governor's rule on 11 October and stated that the governor would now also exercise the powers of the chief minister under the Constitution, the laws in force in the province and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government Rules of Business, 1985.
The suspension has been framed as a consequence of the emergency and is expected to remain in force until it is withdrawn, the emergency ends, or it is struck down by a court. That leaves the province's local government elections in limbo, with no date in sight and no elected councils at the grassroots level, in a province where local government polls have already been delayed for years.
At the same meeting, the commission fixed 7 February 2027 for the first phase of local government elections in Punjab, revising an earlier proposed schedule of April 2027 after the Punjab government asked for the polls to be deferred in view of weather conditions and other administrative constraints. The contrast between the two decisions underlines how differently the electoral calendar is now moving in the two provinces.
What happens next will depend largely on the fate of the emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The commission could revisit the polls if the order suspending Article 140-A is withdrawn, while the suspension itself may yet be challenged in court. Until then, the province's towns, villages and neighbourhood councils remain without elected representatives, and one of the country's most basic tiers of democracy stays on hold.
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