National Assembly approves emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as Bilawal renews dialogue offer and Gohar rejects the move
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Wednesday approved the imposition of emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, voting by majority to endorse the proclamation President Asif Ali Zardari issued on October 11. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry tabled the motion, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar opened the debate, and the question hour was set aside so the house could take up the KP question in full.
The vote clears one constitutional hurdle, not all of them. Under Article 232, an emergency proclamation must be placed before both houses within ten days; it now goes to the Senate. Governor’s rule, proclaimed under Article 234, has its own clock — it will be laid before a joint sitting and lapses after two months unless extended, and it cannot run beyond six months in any case.
Bilawal offers talks again, Gohar says no to the measure
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari delivered the day’s most quoted speech. He laid the blame for the crisis at the door of PTI’s provincial leadership, calling its conduct a political suicide attack on its own government, but he paired the attack with an offer: if the opposition helps create political conditions in which an emergency is no longer needed, he said, he will personally stand in the house and ask Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to end it. PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar welcomed the offer of dialogue while rejecting the emergency outright, demanding action under the National Action Plan and the production of detained lawmakers in the house.
The government’s case, in numbers
Tarar told the house that KP recorded 2,911 terrorism incidents between 2021 and 2024, against 3,787 in the period from October 15, 2025 to October 9, 2026 — figures the government says left it no option but the constitutional step. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended part of the sitting and shook hands with Opposition Leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai, and, unusually for this dispute, the opposition debated without the ruckus that has marked past sessions. The house stands adjourned until 11am on October 16.
