Pakistan’s federal government took over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday 11 October, imposing emergency rule and governor’s rule and suspending the provincial administration run by Imran Khan’s party, and the party now says it will challenge the move in court, Al Jazeera reports.
The dispute now turns on a constitutional question. President Asif Ali Zardari imposed the measures, and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which has governed the northwestern province since 2013, says it intends to file a petition on Tuesday 13 October. Its information secretary, Sheikh Waqas Akram, did not say whether it would go to the Supreme Court or the Federal Constitutional Court.
Islamabad’s Case
According to the proclamation cited by Al Jazeera, the provincial government had failed to show the ownership, will and intent to deal adequately with terrorism. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in Peshawar on Monday that no war against militancy can be won “until the government there leads it”. Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar described the step as a purely constitutional one.
The government’s white paper says 122 police personnel were killed in the province in the first half of this year, up from 63 in the same period of 2025. Separately, the Centre for Research and Security Studies recorded 556 violence-linked deaths in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa between July and September, up from 475 in the previous quarter.
The PTI’s Response
The party disputes the premise. Akram told Al Jazeera that the PTI refused a federal proposal to impose emergency rule in 12 districts, which Naqvi had said the party agreed to, because residents would bear the cost of military operations. The suspended chief minister, Sohail Afridi, and some cabinet members were taken into preventive custody, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry confirmed. The party describes the moves as the start of a crackdown and says its march towards Islamabad, aimed at securing Khan’s release, continues.
Analysts quoted by Al Jazeera disagree on motive. Zaigham Khan called the decision political, administrative and security-related at once, while Ali Arqam said it is mainly a political move presented as administrative necessity.
Why It Matters
The case tests how far a federal government may go in suspending an elected provincial one in the name of security, and it does so while the PTI’s protest movement is under way. The sources reviewed do not report which court will hear the petition or when. Its filing, and any ruling on the emergency, will show whether the dispute is settled in the courts or on the streets.
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