President Asif Ali Zardari signed a proclamation on Sunday, on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, imposing a state of emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the northwestern province governed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party until now. The proclamation declares that the provincial government could no longer function in accordance with the Constitution, the legal basis for governor's rule. On Monday, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said the province's chief minister, Sohail Afridi, was detained.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said at a news conference on Sunday that the fundamental grounds for the imposition of emergency were law and order, the fight against terrorism, and to save innocent people from the dreadful consequences of terrorist activities. He was joined by Information Minister Ataullah Tarar, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other officials.
PTI, which has governed the province since 2013, rejected the move. The action came after talks between the federal government and PTI over a planned march to Islamabad demanding Khan's release failed.
Under the decision, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, who belongs to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), an ally of Sharif's government, will take over the functions of the provincial government. Parliament, where Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the PPP and their other allies hold a majority, takes over the powers of the provincial assembly, where PTI has a majority. The chief minister, ministers, advisers, special assistants and advocate general shall forthwith cease to hold office, the proclamation says.
Hassan Abdullah Niazi, a Lahore-based lawyer and adjunct faculty member at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), offered an alternative interpretation. He said the move does not mean the KP Assembly or its elected chief minister have been permanently removed. It is more akin to thinking they are dysfunctional until the emergency is lifted, at which point they must be restored.
An 11-member advisory council will assist Kundi. The army, already deployed in the province, is expected to assist him and his team in maintaining law and order. A separate federal order has established a secretariat for 12 designated districts, most of them in the former tribal areas along the Afghan border, headed by an additional chief secretary whose orders will carry the same legal force.