ISLAMABAD: The federal government is weighing the drastic step of imposing an emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said on Wednesday, accusing the PTI-led KP government of failing to contain a rapidly deteriorating security situation.
Speaking to journalists at Parliament House, the minister said the Centre was “seriously considering” invoking Article 232 of the Constitution to impose emergency rule in the province, citing what he described as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led (PTI) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s failure to curb terrorism and maintain law and order.
“The federal government is seriously considering the imposition of emergency in KP,” Chaudhry said, claiming that terrorism had increased sharply across the province.
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The warning comes as relations between Islamabad and the PTI-led KP government enter an increasingly confrontational phase, with the opposition party preparing for its October 4 long march on Islamabad. PTI had earlier postponed the protest from September 27.
The planned mobilisation is centred on demands for the release of jailed PTI founding chairman Imran Khan and what the party calls the “restoration” of constitutional supremacy.
The federal government has repeatedly raised concerns over security and law and order in the run-up to the protest, setting the stage for another potentially explosive confrontation between the Centre and the PTI.
Chaudhry accused the KP provincial government of becoming an impediment to federal efforts against terrorism.
“KP government had become an obstacle to the federal government’s efforts to prevent terrorism,” he added.
The minister insisted that the proposed emergency was not being considered as a weapon against the PTI or because of political differences with the provincial administration.
He said the government was prepared to absorb whatever political backlash might follow, arguing that the security situation demanded action.
“Whatever political cost” the government might have to bear, he said, it was prepared to pay in pursuit of what he described as a larger objective.
Chaudhry pointed to the deaths of civilians and security personnel responsible for maintaining law and order as evidence of the province’s worsening security crisis.
Drawing a comparison with Balochistan, he said terrorism existed there as well but claimed that the provincial chief minister was taking measures to counter it.
He also invoked the record of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), saying the PPP had “always fought terrorism with full force” and would support the federal government if emergency rule were imposed in KP.
The remarks add another explosive dimension to an already bitter political confrontation, with the prospect of emergency rule raising the stakes ahead of PTI’s planned march on the capital.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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