Pakistan, Aug. 8 -- Punjab has finally found Rs12.52 billion for an election it was constitutionally required to hold more than four years ago. That is welcome. It is not, however, an achievement to be celebrated before a ballot is cast. Eleven years have passed since Punjab last voted in local government elections, and successive administrations have spent much of that period legislating, delimiting, amending and starting again.

Elections were last held in 2015, and the councils eventually assumed office in 2017, only to be dissolved prematurely by the PTI government in 2019. While the Supreme Court struck that decision down and restored them, their term expired on December 31, 2021. Under Article 140A and the Elections Act, replacement...