Pakistan declared a state of emergency in an opposition-controlled northwestern province on Sunday and imposed direct federal control there, stripping the elected provincial leaders of their powers amid a surge in militant violence.
The intervention marked a sharp escalation in the struggle between the country’s central government, backed by its powerful military, and the opposition party that has governed the province, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which was founded by the former prime minister Imran Khan.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which has recently moved to challenge the federal government, including by organizing protests to call for Mr. Khan’s release, condemned the government’s move as “an undemocratic attempt” to overturn the electoral mandate of voters in the province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
At the official request of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the federal cabinet, President Asif Ali Zardari exercised his constitutional authority to invoke two constitutional provisions related to security and governance to seize control of the province.
Speaking at a news briefing on Sunday, the federal law minister, Azam Nazeer Tarar, said that administrative oversight of the province had been handed to its governor, a representative of the federal government, backed by a proposed 11-member advisory body.
He also said that Pakistani military troops would be deployed to assist the province’s new administration.
The changes give the central government sweeping powers over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan and has been at the center of Pakistan’s resurgent militant violence since the Taliban regained control of that country in 2021.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southwestern province of Balochistan, Pakistan’s military is battling insurgencies that have killed thousands of security personnel and civilians in recent years. In September, 225 militant attacks were recorded across the country, the highest monthly total in 12 years, according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based research organization.
The federal government has not moved to seize control of Balochistan, where the local administration is allied with it.
The federal government said it had taken control of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa because of “a severe breakdown in law and order,” accusing provincial officials of failing to adequately secure the border with Afghanistan, even though the military operates outside the province’s jurisdiction.
It said provincial officials had not been tough enough on the Pakistani Taliban, the major insurgent group it blames for most attacks in the region.
“Combating terrorists is the duty of all of us, including the provincial government, police, and administration, alongside the federation,” Mr. Sharif told a cabinet meeting convened to place the governor in charge.
He said that instead of joining forces with federal authorities to form an “iron wall” against militants, the provincial administration had chosen to remain silent.
There has been no comment from Sohail Afridi, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and uncertainty over his fate grew on Sunday. A spokesman for the provincial government, Shafi Jan, said on social media that Mr. Afridi had been arrested, though the provincial police declined to confirm or deny the report.
The opposition party’s national chairman, Gohar Ali Khan, said that the federal government’s decision would only further destabilize the province, arguing in a post on social media that “undermining provincial autonomy would incite clashes between the federation and the province rather than bring stability.”
The political rift deepened on Oct. 4 when Mr. Afridi, the chief minister, launched a protest march from the province toward Islamabad, the capital, to press the federal government to release Mr. Khan, who has been imprisoned since August 2023.
The marchers were scheduled to advance on Monday toward the neighboring Punjab Province on the way to the capital. Federal authorities responded by blockading access to Islamabad, stacking heavy shipping containers along major roadways to halt the protesters.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent rights watchdog, cautioned the federal government and Parliament against imposing governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, warning that such a move “risks further deepening political tensions and undermining democratic processes.”
Governor’s rule has a long and contentious history in Pakistan, where the balance of authority between the central government and the provinces has repeatedly been tested by political crises and disputes, as well as by military interventions.
Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, experienced governor’s rule in 2009 after a Supreme Court decision disqualified Mr. Sharif, who was then its chief minister, and his brother, Nawaz Sharif, from holding elected office.
In Balochistan, governor’s rule was imposed in January 2013 following a deadly sectarian bombing that killed more than 80 Shia Hazara Muslims in the provincial capital, and criticism of the provincial government’s handling of security.
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