Pakistan cracks down on Imran Khan stronghold province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)

Submission Statement: Pakistan has declared a state of emergency and imposed governor’s rule in the western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, suspending the provincial government led by the party of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan.

The move on Sunday marked the biggest escalation yet by the military-backed government against Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) in its stronghold, a province of 40mn people that is at the centre of the country’s security crisis.

Since early October, thousands of people have been demonstrating in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to demand the former prime minister and international cricket star’s release and to oppose the military’s counter-insurgency tactics along the border with Afghanistan.

While the federal government said the suspension was caused by a worsening security situation and the provincial government’s lack of action, statistics gathered by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, an Islamabad-based think-tank, suggest a fall in deaths of civilians and security personnel in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Such killings in the province totalled 485 in the first nine months of 2026, down 16 per cent compared with the same period in 2025, according to the CRSS, which says overall deaths of civilians and security forces across Pakistan rose 9 per cent.

Shortly after the emergency announcement, the account on social media site X for Junaid Akbar, a member of parliament and the president of the PTI’s provincial chapter, said he and Sohail Afridi, the 37-year-old provincial chief minister who was leading the protest march, had been arrested. 

Afridi, Pakistan’s youngest-ever chief minister, hails from the country’s fractious tribal belt on the border with Afghanistan and has for days led a “long march” through the province to advocate for Khan and oppose the army’s military operations over alleged collateral civilian deaths and damage.

Khan’s party has ruled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since 2013, and the PTI secured more than 60 per cent of seats in the provincial assembly in elections in 2024, two years after his premiership was ended by a parliamentary no-confidence vote. 

Candidates loyal to Khan won the most seats in the National Assembly in 2024, but they were blocked from power by the military and Pakistan’s two dynastic political parties.