Pakistan seems to impose emergency and governor’s rule on Imran Khan’s party-run Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Pakistan’s federal government imposed an emergency and governor’s rule in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, October 11, effectively ending the provincial government run by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), according to Dawn, The Hindu and Al Jazeera. Dawn reports that the President House said President Asif Ali Zardari approved the measures under Articles 232 and 234 of the constitution, which deal with a proclamation of emergency and with governor’s rule. Dunya News reports that the proclamation took immediate effect.

The decision followed an emergency meeting of the federal cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said cabinet members took note of the “provincial government’s deliberate disengagement from the fight against terrorism,” Dawn and Al Jazeera report. State broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported that the advice went from the Prime Minister’s House to the President’s House. “The Cabinet recommended that the Prime Minister advise the President to exercise his constitutional authority and impose an emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under Articles 232 and 234 of the Constitution of Pakistan, given the gravity of the situation,” an official statement said, according to The Hindu.

According to The Hindu and Dunya News, the proclamation orders the chief minister, provincial ministers, advisers, special assistants and advocate general out of office immediately. The federal government may direct Governor Faisal Karim Kundi to take over some or all functions of the provincial government, and Parliament, or an authority it names, will exercise the powers of the provincial assembly, both outlets report. “The extraordinary intensity of terrorist incidents poses serious threats to the lives and property of the public,” the declaration stated, according to The Hindu, which adds that it cited a governor’s report on a breakdown of constitutional machinery in the province.

Dawn reports that the federal government then named Dr Muhammad Fakhr Alam Irfan, previously secretary of the Power Division, as the province’s chief secretary, citing an official notification. Dawn also notes that Article 233, which lets the president suspend certain fundamental rights during an emergency, did not appear in the summary Zardari signed.

Sharif framed the step as a security and economic necessity. “I will not allow them (PTI) to destabilise the economy,” he told the cabinet, Dawn reports. The Hindu quotes him saying: “The KP government is not saying a word against militancy… It is time to take a decision as we have reached a moment of now or never.” The Hindu also reports that Sharif said the federal government had given the province at least PKR 800 billion over 10 years to fight terrorism and improve security. Dunya News reports that two security reports presented to the cabinet put the rise in terrorist incidents in the province at 195 per cent between March 1, 2024, and September 23, 2026, and blamed militants operating from Afghanistan, local facilitators and provincial policy shortcomings.

The PTI rejected the move outright. Party chairman Gohar Ali Khan wrote on X: “This is an extremely alarming and grave political mistake and an undemocratic measure — the people will never accept such actions against their rights,” according to Dawn. He added that “Peace cannot be established, nor stability brought, by ignoring this mandate, weakening provincial autonomy, and creating conflict between the federation and the province,” and said the party would take the matter to “every constitutional, legal, and democratic forum,” Dawn reports.

The timing points to a deeper political fight, according to the reports. The Hindu says the move comes amid a protest march led by provincial Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, pressing for Khan’s release and medical access, which began in Lakki Marwat on October 4. Al Jazeera reports that the PTI had prepared for a march on Islamabad to demand the release of Khan, who has spent more than three years in jail. Dawn reports that the two governments have clashed over counterterrorism policy, which it calls one of the main reasons talks broke down on October 3, and that the PTI says the centre has left it out of security decisions, which the centre denies.

Governor Kundi, a PPP leader, said the decision aimed at “establishing peace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the prosperity of its people, and the development of the province,” Dawn reports. Dawn adds that Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who had sought to ease tensions, called an emergency meeting of his party’s core committee, and The Hindu cites sources saying a last-ditch mediation effort through him failed.

Under Article 234, Dawn explains, a governor’s-rule proclamation must go before a joint sitting of Parliament and lapses after two months unless approved, and it cannot stay in force for more than six months in total. Whether Parliament takes up the proclamation, and whether the PTI challenges it in court, seems likely to shape what happens next. This desk has not read the proclamation text itself.