Two years after Pakistan's general elections, 128 of the 374 electoral petitions originally filed remain unresolved as of April 2026, leaving dozens of sitting lawmakers in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies under a cloud of legal uncertainty. The prolonged deadlock, flagged in a report by Business Recorder, is being cited as a deepening threat to the credibility of Pakistan's democratic institutions.

The Scale of the Backlog

Pakistan's election tribunals were constituted specifically to deliver impartial and time-bound resolution of electoral disputes. The Elections Act mandates that petitions be decided within 180 days. Yet more than two years after the polls, over a third of all filed petitions remain pending — a failure that critics argue is not merely procedural but constitutionally consequential.

According to the Business Recorder report, the delay 'undermines confidence in democratic institutions as well as casts a shadow over the legitimacy of constitutional and legislative processes carried out.'

Constitutional Stakes

The unresolved disputes carry particular weight given the major constitutional amendments that have passed through parliament in the intervening period. As the report noted, 'constitutional amendments derive their legitimacy from the unquestioned authority of elected representatives.' With the legal status of numerous legislators still in dispute, the moral and political authority of those parliamentary decisions is being questioned.

This is not a hypothetical concern — legislation passed by a parliament whose composition is legally contested faces challenges on grounds of legitimacy, regardless of procedural correctness.

Penalties on Paper, Unenforced in Practice

The Elections Act does provide tools to prevent precisely this kind of delay. Tribunals are empowered to impose mandatory costs for adjournments and can even suspend the assembly membership of returned candidates found responsible for prolonging proceedings. However, according to the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), no such suspensions have been ordered — suggesting that existing legal safeguards are not being enforced.

Transparency Failures in Punjab

The situation is reportedly compounded by a lack of transparency, particularly in Punjab, where tribunals have withheld petition memos and judgments from public access. According to the report, this 'deprives citizens, political parties, and independent observers of the opportunity to scrutinise tribunal decisions.' The opacity, critics argue, only fuels speculation and deepens suspicion about the neutrality of both electoral and judicial institutions.

A Recurring Pattern

Pakistan's political landscape has seen this pattern repeat across consecutive general election cycles, with delayed dispute resolution keeping post-election tensions alive well beyond polling day. The political polarisation that follows each election is thus sustained — and arguably worsened — by institutional inaction. The Business Recorder report stressed that 'Pakistan's democratic future depends on ensuring that electoral disputes are resolved fairly, transparently, and within the timeframe prescribed by law.' Whether the tribunals, or the authorities overseeing them, act on that imperative before the next electoral cycle remains an open question.