ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s president imposed a state of emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday, suspending the elected government led by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party and deepening the country’s political crisis, Reuters reported.
President Asif Ali Zardari signed off on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s advice after a federal cabinet decision, the president’s office said, invoking Articles 232 and 234 of the Constitution. The statement said the provincial government had failed to fight Islamist militancy, according to Sharif’s office.
The proclamation transfers executive authority from the PTI-led administration to Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, backed by an 11-member advisory council, with emergency arrangements covering 12 districts, according to reports. The president’s office did not specify how the province would be administered. The government also announced that sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate would be convened on Oct. 13.
The move comes amid a confrontation between Sharif’s federal government and Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which governs the northwestern province. Khan’s supporters began a long march toward Islamabad last week demanding his release, and the party has threatened to march on the capital in the coming days.
PTI rejected the emergency. Zulfikar Bukhari, a close Khan aide and party spokesman, called it a “ridiculous decision,” saying Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the country’s “only legitimately elected government” and warning it would bring “further bloodshed, instability and collateral damage.” Another party spokesman described the move as “a coup disguised as emergency,” according to Reuters.
The rift between Khan’s party and Pakistan’s leadership dates to Khan’s 2022 ouster by parliament. His 2023 arrest sparked riots, a crackdown in which thousands of supporters were detained, and convictions in military courts. All but one of Khan’s convictions have since been suspended or overturned, with appeals pending. Hundreds of activists and three of Khan’s sisters were detained before the latest planned march, the party said.
