Pakistan’s federal cabinet has approved the transfer of powers assigned to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister to the provincial governor for day-to-day administration during the existing emergency.
Governor Faisal Karim Kundi will submit a monthly review to the federal government on how the delegated powers are used, the Prime Minister’s Office said after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday 4 November.
The decision concerns the administration of a province already under emergency and governor’s rule. It is not a new declaration of those measures: they were imposed on 11 October, when the province’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government was displaced.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired the cabinet meeting in Islamabad. His office said the transfer was intended to help the handling of administrative affairs and improve governance during the emergency. The cabinet also expressed hope that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advisory Council, under the governor’s leadership, would work for the province’s welfare and the restoration of law and order.
The announcement describes powers assigned to the chief minister for the handling of day-to-day matters. It does not provide a detailed list of individual functions or explain every practical limit on their exercise. The monthly reports are to go to the federal government; the announcement does not say they will be made public.
An existing emergency
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in north-western Pakistan, borders Afghanistan and has faced militant violence. The governor had already taken charge of provincial government functions under the October measures. Wednesday’s cabinet approval addresses delegated administrative powers within that existing arrangement.
President Asif Ali Zardari issued the October proclamations on the prime minister’s advice. The federal government said the province’s security situation and the provincial administration’s response to militancy justified intervention. The decision displaced a government led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, the party of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan.
PTI rejected the federal government’s characterisation of its record, saying it had been fighting terrorism and had not received the funding and equipment it needed. The intervention also came amid a political confrontation over a planned march towards Islamabad demanding Khan’s release. These were objections and circumstances surrounding the October emergency, not a newly verified response to Wednesday’s delegation.
Both houses of Pakistan’s parliament endorsed the emergency on 14 October. A joint sitting approved separate resolutions on the emergency and governor’s rule the following day. The two measures were made under different constitutional provisions: Article 232 concerns emergency powers, while Article 234 concerns federal intervention where a province cannot be governed in accordance with the constitution.
Legal and political challenges
PTI has challenged the October intervention in the Peshawar High Court. In an amended petition filed on 19 October, its chairman Gohar Ali Khan argued that the emergency was unconstitutional because the provincial assembly had not passed a supporting resolution. An earlier petition also sought the reinstatement of former chief minister Sohail Afridi and his cabinet. The party’s argument is a legal claim, not a court finding.
Separate petitions concern the detention or whereabouts of Afridi and other PTI figures. On 3 November, a Peshawar High Court bench referred those petitions to the chief justice for a larger bench to be constituted. A federal minister had previously said Afridi and some former cabinet members were in preventive custody. The court referral was not a ruling on the lawfulness of their detention.
At Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, Sharif also said a 160 billion Pakistani rupee development and security package for the province had been finalised. He had announced a package of that value in October. The statement of a finalised package does not by itself establish that the funds have been spent or that projects have been completed.
Featured image: AI-generated illustration.
