KP Emergency Covers Entire Province, Not Just 12 Districts: Tarar
ISLAMABAD: The KP emergency now applies to all districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, not just the 12 worst-hit, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference alongside Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, the law minister said the emergency proclamation issued under Article 232 covers all of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. For the 12 worst-hit districts, he said, a special mechanism has been introduced.
“Under the chief executive, extra measures have been taken; a dedicated secretariat has been established which will be providing assistance to those districts,” Tarar said.
Why the government imposed the KP emergency
Tarar pointed to a sharp rise in terrorism as the justification. The province recorded about 8,600 terrorist attacks in 2024-2026, compared with 2,900 in 2020-2024 — a rise of 195 per cent, he said.
“All these arrangements are made to run the country in a way that people feel safe,” the law minister said, adding that the “non-serious” attitude of the PTI-led provincial government “has now ceased to exist”.
He recalled that the PTI had used government resources to “launch an onslaught on the capital”, and said the federal government had stayed in constant engagement with the provincial authorities before taking the step.
“Unfortunately, their response was somewhat different. Maybe their politics were more important to them than having the national interest at heart,” he said.
Describing conditions on the ground, Tarar said KP police and armed forces deployed in the province were under attack and innocent people had lost their lives. “You cannot shut your eyes after receiving such reports and seeing this rise in terrorist activity,” he said.
“One country cannot have two counterterrorism policies”
The law minister stressed that counterterrorism efforts by federal and provincial agencies had to be “harmonised”, calling it standard practice around the world.
“You cannot have a government in the country that sympathises with terrorists, supports terrorism or has a policy that enables terrorists to carry out their operational actions,” he said, questioning how one country could run two separate counterterrorism policies.
He said the framers of the Constitution had included Articles 232 and 234 for exactly this kind of moment, citing what he called a “complete breakdown” of law and order in the province.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar claimed the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had “welcomed” the move, saying it had given them “hope”. “Had the people of KP supported the pro-terrorist stance of the PTI government, you would have seen millions on the streets,” he said.
The information minister insisted the federal government had no political agenda against the PTI-led provincial setup and was pursuing “a unified policy on counterterrorism”.
KP emergency in all districts: what changes on the ground
The clarification matters for residents across the province. An emergency limited to 12 districts would have left the rest of KP under normal administration; a province-wide emergency puts the whole of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the federal framework, with the dedicated secretariat channelling extra support to the hardest-hit areas.
The move follows days of fast-moving developments, from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif briefing allies on the governor’s rule decision to the first apex committee meeting under Governor Kundi. A petition challenging the emergency is already before the Peshawar High Court, so the legal battle over the proclamation is only beginning.
Does the KP emergency cover the whole province?
Yes. Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the Article 232 emergency proclamation applies to all of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, not just the 12 terror-affected districts. Those 12 districts get an additional dedicated secretariat for support.
Why did the government impose the emergency?
The government cites a 195 per cent rise in terrorist attacks — about 8,600 in 2024-2026 against 2,900 in 2020-2024 — and what it calls the PTI provincial government’s “non-serious” attitude toward counterterrorism.
What is Article 232?
Article 232 of the Constitution allows the president to proclaim an emergency when the security of Pakistan is threatened. The law minister said the Constitution’s framers included it, along with Article 234, for situations like the current breakdown of law and order in KP.
