What Emergency Rule and Governorship in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mean

Pakistan has taken control of a provincial government held by Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party. What does this move mean, and what happens next?

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The federal government of Pakistan has taken direct control of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a northwestern province that has been ruled by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

On Sunday, President Asif Ali Zardari, on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, signed a declaration in which he imposed a state of emergency and declared that the provincial government can no longer act according to the constitution, the legal basis of governorship. On Monday, Interior Minister Talal Chowdhury said that Sohail Afridi, the interior minister of the province, has been detained.

List of 4 items List 1 of 4 Pakistan imposes emergency in province ruled by Imran Khan's party

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List 3 of 4 Pakistan suspends provincial government led by Imran Khan's party

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Federal Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar said in a news conference in Islamabad on Sunday, alongside Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Interior Minister Mohsen Naqvi and other officials: "The basic ground for imposing a law and order emergency is to fight terrorism and save innocent people from the terrible consequences of terrorist activities."

The Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, which has been ruling the province since 2013, has rejected this move. This came after talks broke down between the federal government and the party over plans for Islamabad demanding the release of former prime minister Khan.

Here's what these two measures mean, who is running the province now, and how long this arrangement can last.

According to the decision of the government, Governor Faisal Karim Kandi will take over the duties of the provincial government. Kennedy belongs to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which is an ally of the Sharif government.

Parliament - where the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), PPP and other allies hold a majority - takes over the powers of the provincial assembly, where the Tehreek-e-Insaf Party has a majority. The statement said that the prime minister, ministers, advisers, special assistants and the attorney general "will immediately step down".

Hassan Abdullah Niazi, a Lahore-based lawyer and adjunct faculty member at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), offered a different interpretation.

"However, this does not mean that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly or its elected chief minister have been removed forever. It is more like thinking that they are ineffective until the state of emergency is lifted, at which point they should be revived," he told Al Jazeera.

Kennedy will be assisted by an 11-member advisory council.

The army already deployed in the province is expected to assist the governor and his team in maintaining law and order.

A separate federal order created a secretariat for 12 "designated areas," most of them in former tribal areas along the Afghan border.

It will be directed by an additional chief secretary whose orders have the same legal effect as the provincial government.

"No province has been divided anywhere. It is only these war-torn districts that currently need more funds and more focus and have been separated for this," Naqvi told a news conference on Sunday.

In this order, it is also stated that the article of the constitution regarding the separation of the judiciary from the executive branch is not applied in the designated areas.

Rida Hussain, a Lahore-based constitutional lawyer, told Al Jazeera: "The constitutional provision that mandates the separation of the judiciary from the executive has been suspended, allowing executive officers to carry out judicial functions.

Why did the government invoke both measures?

Article 232 of Pakistan's constitution allows the president to declare a state of emergency when security is threatened by "internal disturbances beyond the power of provincial control".

Article 234 is applied when the governor reports that a province cannot be governed according to the constitution.

The announcement cites "terrorist" attacks of "unprecedented levels of violence" and says the provincial government has "failed to demonstrate ownership, will and intent to adequately address the threat of terrorism".

According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), an independent think tank based in Islamabad, militants carried out at least 1,066 attacks in Pakistan in 2025, up from 908 in 2024.

PICSS recorded 1,232 attacks nationwide in the first nine months of 2026, more than in all of 2025. The majority occurred in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, in the southwest.

"But this situation was so dire and exceptional that the requirements of both articles, the circumstances that require it, were such that both sentences were applied," Tarrar said.

Attaullah Tarar, Minister of Information, accused the provincial government of having links with armed groups.

"It was the view of all the cabinet members, which was carefully examined from the beginning to the end," he said without providing evidence that the Tehreek-e-Insaf government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is in the hands of terrorists.

Naqvi said that the government has dozens of documents against the provincial government. None has been made public.

Gohar Ali Khan, head of Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, raised the question why if security concerns are concentrated in certain districts, then these measures are applied across the province.

"If there is terrorism and a state of emergency is needed in 12 districts, then why is the governor's rule ruling throughout the province?" He said in a news conference in Islamabad after the government briefing.

Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and former provincial finance minister Taimur Jagra denied the government's allegations.

"Of course, the provincial government was fighting terrorism. We own the fight against terrorism individually and collectively. If it was terrorism, Pesaw told Al Jazeera: Balochistan should have had a state of emergency before Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Tehreek-e-Insaf says that Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and other party leaders are under arrest until Sunday.

We know that Foreign Minister, Provincial President Junaid Akbar, Parliament Speaker Babar Swati and some other leaders have been arrested. Jagra said the government has not specified where they are.

Naqvi also mentioned on Sunday that Tehreek-e-Insaf members may be arrested.

“Certainly, they or anyone else needed for law and order, to maintain that, we will be placed under protective custody. But those wanted among them will be arrested and the rest will be released as soon as law and order improves, Naqvi said.

Expressing Naqvi's position in the same news conference, Tar said that some figures of Tehreek-e-Insaf had already been placed in preventive detention.

Tehreek-e-Insaf says several provincial ministers and legislators were arrested even before Sunday.