Pakistan’s president has declared a state of emergency in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and suspended its provincial government, which is led by the party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, according to reports — the sharpest federal intervention in the country’s politics in years.
President Asif Ali Zardari approved the move on Sunday on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s federal cabinet, invoking Articles 232 and 234 of the constitution. A governor, Faisal Karim Kundi, will now run the province assisted by an 11-member advisory council, and the takeover is initially set for six months, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar announced.
The federal government said the province’s leadership had failed to tackle Islamist militancy in the region bordering Afghanistan, where attacks have risen sharply in recent months — a justification governments across the region have leaned on in recent counter-militancy operations. The interior ministry is deploying troops to the province, and targeted disruptions to mobile and internet services were reported in parts of Peshawar. A new chief secretary, Dr Muhammad Fakhr Alam Irfan, has been appointed to oversee the provincial administration.
A standoff years in the making
The emergency decree landed a week after supporters of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) gathered in the province intending to march on Islamabad to demand his release. Hundreds of activists — and three of Khan’s sisters — were detained ahead of the planned march, in what the party described as one of the strongest crackdowns in years.
The confrontation stretches back to Khan’s 2023 arrest, which sparked nationwide riots, and the party’s last large-scale protest two years ago ended in deadly clashes with security forces. Restrictions have now been placed on the movements of Sohail Afridi, the PTI leader who had been running the province, according to reports.
What the takeover means
PTI leaders rejected the move outright, with a party spokesperson calling it a “coup disguised as emergency” and an unconstitutional assault on the public mandate. The party says it will challenge the decision in court. The federal government and the military counter that the provincial setup failed to curb militants — a charge the party denies, saying Islamabad never provided the funding and equipment it needed.
Governor’s rule puts the province’s executive powers in federal hands while the assembly’s powers pass to parliament, centralising control of a region that has been the PTI’s strongest political base. With parliamentary approval required under the constitution and a legal challenge signalled, the coming weeks will test whether the emergency defuses the militancy crisis — or deepens Pakistan’s political one, adding to an already volatile regional security picture.
