Former president Arif Alvi, a senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has condemned the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as an assault on democracy. Writing on X on Monday, he said the move amounted to the final blow against democratic rule in the country. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, in a separate post on the same platform, placed the blame for the province’s political, economic and security problems on what she called 13 years of PTI misgovernance.
The federal government had announced the emergency and governor’s rule on Sunday, invoking Articles 232 and 234 of the Constitution. It cited a deteriorating security situation and said the provincial administration, which PTI runs, had failed to give adequate support to counterterrorism efforts. PTI has rejected the decision as undemocratic, and the two leaders offered sharply different readings of why the provincial government was suspended.
Arif Alvi accuses Islamabad of overriding Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mandate
Alvi argued that only the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had the authority to remove the government they had elected. He said the province had delivered a two-thirds mandate that could not be taken away, yet it had now been placed under what he called an unrepresentative and fraudulent set-up based in Islamabad. In his view, the federal authorities were overriding the will of the provincial electorate and suppressing political dissent.
The former president said reports suggested that a planned meeting with PTI founder Imran Khan had been the main obstacle in negotiations between the federal and provincial leaderships. He claimed that hostility towards Khan was adding to the country’s political crisis. Tying the confrontation to poverty, elite control and a rise in authoritarianism, he said personal hostility was tearing Pakistan apart.
Alleged crackdown on PTI supporters and representatives
Alvi also accused law enforcement agencies of using coercive methods against PTI supporters and elected representatives. He alleged that children had been taken away and beaten to pressure their parents, that property had been damaged, and that party representatives had been tortured or abducted. These claims were made by Alvi and were not presented as established findings in the source material.
Drawing comparisons with protests in Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, he warned that suppressing peaceful demonstrations could deepen public alienation and worsen instability. He also criticised the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan People’s Party, which lead the federal coalition, saying they were undermining democratic institutions. Alvi added that PTI would continue its struggle peacefully and rejected violence as a means of political resistance.
In a sarcastic aside, he said that those responsible for the federal intervention deserved a Nobel Prize, though not for peace, but for what he termed their efforts to demolish the country. He nonetheless expressed confidence that Khan would rebuild the nation from the damage that, in his words, those departing would leave behind.
Maryam Nawaz blames PTI governance for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa problems
Maryam Nawaz, in an Urdu-language post on X, defended her criticism of PTI’s record in the province. She said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s present difficulties were the product of years of political confrontation and weak administration, rather than any lack of resources. She described the past 13 years as marked by sit-ins, disorder and insults, and said residents should not be blamed for the current situation, which she attributed to years of incompetence.
She questioned why Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which operate under the same Constitution and draw on the same national resources, had produced such different results in development and public services. Her answer was direct: “The difference is not resources, but intention and ability.”
Maryam pointed to Punjab’s cleanliness initiatives, scholarship schemes, public transport, road infrastructure and healthcare programmes as examples of governance focused on delivering services. She asked why students in Punjab had been offered scholarships while children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had received no comparable attention. She also wondered why residents of one province could enjoy better healthcare and transport while those in the other still struggled.
The Punjab chief minister contrasted the two provinces’ approaches to public security as well. She argued that the PTI-led administration had put political protests and attempts to march on Islamabad ahead of the safety and welfare of ordinary residents. Maryam further criticised what she described as a focus on social media campaigns instead of practical development, insisting that public infrastructure and services should be judged by measurable results.
Summing up, she said the province’s troubles were the consequence of 13 years of disorder and incompetence. Punjab, she said, had shown that governments function through effort and delivery rather than rhetoric, and that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa needed public service rather than political confrontation.
