By Staff Reporter
PESHAWAR: The chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has vowed to resist any attempt by Islamabad to impose emergency rule, a week into a march by supporters of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
Sohail Afridi, a senior leader of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told crowds in Charsadda and Mardan on Saturday that he would neither sign documents under pressure nor accept governor’s rule, as reports mounted that the federal government is preparing to take control of a dozen districts in the province.
The march, which began on 4 October to demand Khan’s release, has so far stayed within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the PTI is in power. Its route has changed several times. Although the party initially promised to head for Islamabad, its final destination remains uncertain, and Afridi has yet to say where it will go after the town of Swabi.
Addressing a large gathering at Farooq-i-Azam Chowk in Charsadda, many of them in red caps and chanting for Khan, the provincial chief said he stood with the people and would not accept decisions imposed through pressure or threats. He spoke from a container truck alongside party leaders.
“I was asked to sign, but I refused,” he said. He did not say what document he had been asked to sign, but he said he would not retreat from his position or compromise on his principles. He referred to what he alleged were preparations for a military operation in the province and said attempts had been made to persuade him to agree to certain decisions.
Afridi, who became chief minister in October 2025, has repeatedly opposed the federal government’s counterterrorism and Afghanistan policies. He said on Saturday that the dispute “had gone beyond seats and power” and that he was ready to “sacrifice” his post for Khan and the Pakhtun people. He said the province had suffered immense losses in the fight against terrorism and that its sacrifices should not be forgotten.
Later in Mardan, he rejected governor’s rule and emergency measures outright. “We will not accept governor’s rule or an emergency as an unconstitutional measure,” he said, adding that arrests would not weaken the movement’s resolve. He told supporters that Pashtuns were not afraid of guns or bullets and that the party would not be cowed by what he called oppressive tactics.
He urged people from across the country to converge on the Swabi interchange on Sunday, promising that they would be looked after, and said they should travel by motorcycle, bicycle or on foot if necessary. “Those who love Imran Khan will reach Swabi at all costs,” he said. He predicted a turnout so large that “no one would dare open fire”, while insisting that the protest would stay peaceful. “One thousand brave people are better than 10 million cowards,” he said.
Afridi also told supporters in Mardan that any move to impose governor’s rule or an emergency, or to undermine the public mandate, would bring people out in Peshawar, the provincial capital. The PTI’s provincial president, Junaid Akbar, has separately urged party workers to gather outside the Governor House if they hear that either measure has been imposed.
Afridi has said he will announce the march’s next phase on 13 October at Swabi. According to a plan he shared on Friday, convoys from Peshawar, Malakand and Kohat will arrive there that day, followed by caravans from Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Hazara on 14 October. “God willing, we will move beyond Swabi on 14 October,” he wrote. KP Information Minister Shafi Jan said the convoy would spend Saturday night in Mardan.
Emergency plan
Federal ministers have threatened for weeks to intervene in the province, citing its worsening security situation and its differences with Islamabad over counterterrorism. Reports on Saturday suggested those plans were well advanced.
According to unnamed sources, the proposal would place 12 districts under an emergency: eight merged tribal districts and four settled ones. The tribal districts are Khyber, Kurram, Orakzai, Bajaur, Mohmand, North Waziristan, South Waziristan and Lower Waziristan. The settled districts are Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, Bannu and Lakki Marwat.
The sources said a separate administrative structure was under consideration, headed by a secretariat led by a grade 21 civil servant, with a grade 21 police officer and four to six additional administrative officers appointed directly by the federal government. Deputy commissioners and district police officers in the affected districts would report to it. The emergency would initially last two months, after which it would be reviewed and possibly extended. The sources added that the provincial government had been informed and that Articles 232 to 234 of the constitution could be examined, noting that emergency and governor’s rule carry different legal procedures and consequences.
President Asif Ali Zardari chaired a high-level meeting at the President’s House on Saturday, attended by the prime minister, senior ministers and security officials, to review the security situation in the province, though no final decision had been announced. After the meeting, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was reported to have called an emergency meeting of the federal cabinet for the following day.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said the government had completed its deliberations on an emergency and that the next step depended on what role the provincial government chose to play. He said a decision to take “decisive action” against terrorism in the province had been made, and that Article 232 applied to the whole province, not only the 12 districts. He also said an emergency was not the government’s preferred option.
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