Pakistan imposes emergency rule in Khan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stronghold, suspending provincial government as protests and militant violence escalate

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari signed an emergency declaration for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, October 11, suspending the provincial government led by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. The measure was approved under Articles 232 and 234 of the constitution, after the federal cabinet recommended it over what Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office described as a worsening security situation and the provincial government’s “deliberate disengagement from the fight against terrorism.”

The declaration gives the federal government broad authority over provincial affairs. The president’s office said the decision followed reports on law and order and the failure of negotiations with government delegations. In Peshawar, security was tightened, public transport was suspended and mobile networks were disrupted.

PTI lawmaker Junaid Akbar said on X that Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and the party’s provincial president had been arrested. PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan condemned the move as an “extremely alarming and undemocratic political mistake,” saying the public would not accept actions against its rights.

PTI supporters began long-march demonstrations about a week before the decree after talks with the federal government broke down. Their demands included access to medical care for Khan, who has been imprisoned since August 2023 on charges he and his legal team reject as politically motivated.