ISLAMABAD: In Punjab, considered the heartland of Pakistani politics, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is facing the serious threat of being completely excluded from the upcoming local government elections scheduled for December 2025. The party’s internal legal disputes, which have remained unresolved for months, have now escalated into a significant challenge to its political survival.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has confirmed that the upcoming elections will be held under the new “Punjab Local Government Act 2025.” This legislation contains a critical clause that could prove to be the decisive obstacle for PTI.
According to the new law, the elections will be contested on a non-partisan basis. However, it mandates that every successful candidate must join a political party within 30 days of their official notification.
This is where the core problem for PTI lies. The party has been entangled in a legal dispute with the ECP regarding its intra-party elections for the past 19 months. According to legal experts, until this case is resolved, PTI lacks the recognized status from the ECP that would allow it to issue the official “party certificates” to successful candidates.
This situation means that even if candidates supported by PTI win the election as independents, they will be legally barred from joining PTI. It is a legal maze that has apparently stumped the party’s top leadership, which includes several senior lawyers.
Observers are describing this scenario as a potential “political whitewash” for PTI. Despite its claims of public popularity, a critical legal and organizational failure could make the party completely irrelevant in the province’s new local government system.
