ISLAMABAD: Pakistan placed a northern province under emergency rule on Sunday, the president's office said, following anti-government demonstrations by supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and militant violence in the northwest. Thousands of Khan's supporters have been marching in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to demand his release and air anti-government criticism fuelled by harsh economic conditions.
Shortly after the measures were announced, a lawmaker from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Junaid Akbar, said on X that the province's chief minister Sohail Afridi had been arrested along with the provincial president.
A government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the PTI provincial leader detentions. The country's law minister confirmed the provincial government had been disbanded, saying at a news conference that incidents of militancy had increased during its tenure.
PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan called the emergency declaration "an extremely alarming and grave political mistake and an undemocratic measure".
"The people will never accept such actions against their rights," he posted on X. The declaration, invoked under two articles of Pakistan's constitution dealing with security, grants the federal government sweeping administrative powers over the province. — AFP
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