Sunday, Oct 11, evoked grim memories for many in Pakistan, as the federal government imposed emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The cabinet was certain of the decision, but many others warned against repeating what they saw as an “ill-advised step”. Nevertheless, it happened, again.
The threat of emergency and governor’s rule had been looming over the province for days, after the PTI announced its long march to Islamabad to demand the release of its jailed founder, Imran Khan. It materialised on Sunday.
It began with a federal cabinet meeting where Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was briefed on the security situation in KP, which the Centre had earlier been linking with the need for emergency in the province.
The cabinet reviewed the situation, took note of the “provincial government’s deliberate disengagement from the fight against terrorism”, and gave the nod to impose emergency and governor’s rule in KP. A signature by President Asif Ali Zardari, and the decision was implemented shortly after.
The development took veteran journalist Mazhar Abbas on a trip down memory lane, apparently a grim one.
“Why [does] October often bring ‘bad news’ for democracy from 1958 to 2026?” he posted on X.
“Saddest part is that each time one party or the other welcomed such moves. On Oct 12, 1999 when PM Nawaz was sacked, the PPP welcomed the move. Now, the PPP and PML-N agreed to get rid of the PTI KP government. No lesson learnt,” he lamented.
Former ambassador and analyst Maleeha Lodhi agreed.
“Really nothing learnt from history,” she too posted, replying to Abbas’s comment.
Analyst Niaz Murtaza was more thorough in recounting the historical trend of what Abbas described as “bad news” from October.
“October is perhaps the worst month for democracy,” Murtaza commented, sharing a list of instances from history:
On the latest imposition of emergency in KP, he said the move was “deeply condemnable, unfortunate and ill-advised”.
“The clearly illegitimate nature of the central government makes it doubly so. This could make the situation in KP much more complicated,” he warned.
Others, too, warned against the move and its consequences. Among them was National Democratic Movement Chairperson Bushra Gohar, who posted a warning the night before emergency was imposed.
“Emergency will further aggravate the already volatile political and security situation in Pakhtunkhwa. The province cannot afford yet another failed experiment after the disastrous pro-Taliban TTPTI government — 13 years of incompetence, loot and plunder, death and devastation,” she posted on X on the night before emergency was imposed.
Instead, she added, free, fair and credible elections were the only way forward.
Similarly, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan cautioned the federal government and Parliament in a statement that declaring emergency or imposing governor’s rule in KP risked further deepening of political tensions and undermining of democratic processes.
“We strongly urge the federal government and the PTI to resume a meaningful political dialogue immediately and ensure that citizens’ fundamental rights are not suspended under any pretext,” the statement said.
Lawyer Rida Hosain said that by imposing emergency, the federal government has “undermined the democratic choice of the people of KP and its provincial autonomy”.
“The authority of KP’s elected institutions flows from the people’s will, not from the dictates of the federal government,” she wrote on X.
In another post, she pointed out that Article 175(3) of the Constitution had been deemed inapplicable for the duration of the emergency.
“Article 175(3) mandates the separation of the judiciary from the executive. This paves the way for executive officers to perform judicial functions in these areas,” she explained.
Similarly, journalist Munizae Jahangir termed emergency and governor’s rule a “spectacular failure of the politicians,the ruling party amd its allies”.
They had set a “dangerous precedent and disenfranchised an entire province, while the opposition failed to negotiate a space for themselves where they could protect themselves and their citizens. The people of KP will now suffer the most,” she said.
Lawyer Hassan Abdullah Niazi noted that throughout Pakistan’s history, the “imposition of an emergency has rarely resulted in better governance or democracy”.
“We have normalised the extraordinary; the denial of fundamental rights,” he contended.
He termed the decision “unconstitutional” and explained the reasons for his analysis in a series of posts on X.
“Article 234 (governor’s rule) requires a demonstration that the constitutional machinery in a province has broken down. Nothing the government has said justifies this so far. The KP Assembly is working as is the cabinet,” Niazi explained.
He went on to caution that “such a move will further fragment national stability” and “creates a dangerous precedent where the federation can simply dismiss troublesome provincial governments over political differences”.
Senior journalist Zarrar Khuhro remarked, “While this has very little to do with terrorism, will emergency stop the bleeding. You guessed it: no.”
Journalist Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud saw emergency as a move that “frees the PTI” and “traps the Centre”.
Because “Islamabad owns security, PTI owns the narrative”, he said on X.
Former caretaker IT minister Umar Saif explained Mehsud’s deduction in more detail, saying that imposing emergency in KP “comes with an enormous burden of responsibility”.
“It is not merely an exercise of authority; it is a commitment to fix what has gone wrong. The government must now deliver. Failure will deepen public disillusionment, hand fresh ammunition to the naysayers, and discredit the very idea of reform.
“Reform demands clarity of intent, consistency of purpose, and the resolve to see it through. We have seen too many initiatives falter midway, leaving behind resentment and eroding faith in the process,” he said.
Meanwhile, journalist Shahzad Iqbal noted that PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had called emergency a “political atomic bomb”.
“Yet President Zardari has completed hat-trick of imposing governor’s rule,” he said, recounting the previous two instances — in 2009 in Punjab and in 2013 in Balochistan.
“The irony is hard to miss,” he commented.
Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani also noted the repeated instances of emergency and governor’s rule in Pakistan, commenting: “What has happened repeatedly in the brief history of Pakistan does not happen in the long history of other countries.”
Header image: A general view shows a road blocked with shipping containers amid ongoing protests by the PTI party demanding the release of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan in Peshawar on October 11, 2026. — AFP
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