KP emergency could last until 2029, says Rana Sanaullah

The emergency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could stay in place for at least a year and might continue until 2029, senior PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah said, as the new administration carried out a sweeping reshuffle of the provincial bureaucracy and police detained PTI workers across several districts.

Speaking on ARY News programme Khabar, Sanaullah urged people to pray that the measures needed for peace could be completed by then, saying that would be a blessing for the public.

“No one will be displaced”

Sanaullah said the measures were aimed at eliminating terrorists and protecting people, and that if the federal government’s team fulfilled the responsibility given to it, that would be a major achievement.

He said thousands of lives had been sacrificed in the war against terrorism and that the armed forces were making sacrifices on the front line. Counterterrorism operations would be carried out on a large scale, he said, but “no one would be displaced”.

He called suspended chief minister Sohail Afridi inexperienced, comparing him to former Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar. On the opposition’s long march, he said calling it off was the first condition for talks, adding that no demand could be accepted “through threats of a long march or blackmail”.

Bureaucracy overhauled

The KP government, now led by the governor, transferred most administrative secretaries, divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners, Dawn reported. Among the changes:

• Home and tribal affairs: industries secretary Amjad Ali Khan becomes home secretary
• Health: information secretary Matiullah Khan moves to health
• Finance: Muhammad Ayaz takes over the finance department
• Peshawar: Bannu commissioner Khalid Mahmood becomes Peshawar commissioner
• Divisions: new commissioners were posted to Mardan, Bannu, Kohat, Hazara and Malakand, while the outgoing commissioners were told to report to the Human Resource Management Department

Most deputy commissioners across the province were also transferred.

PTI workers held

Police carried out raids and arrests across the province, Dawn reported:

• Swabi: about 140 PTI workers were arrested at Ismailia Interchange and the Razaar Sports Complex, while mobile and internet services were suspended across the district
• Swat: a case was registered against two PTI MNAs, four MPAs and around 150 workers over a September 28 rally that blocked the Mingora-Murghazar Road
• Chitral, Abbottabad, Battagram and Charsadda: party leaders and workers were arrested, and former assembly speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani was placed under house arrest
• Lower and Upper Dir: life remained normal, with markets open and no protests reported

Lawyers oppose the move

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council called a province-wide black day and court boycott on Tuesday, The Express Tribune reported. It said using constitutional powers to sideline an elected provincial government over political differences threatened provincial autonomy and parliamentary democracy, and called a general body meeting in Peshawar on October 17.

Why it matters

The government says the emergency is about one goal: defeating terrorism in KP. Sanaullah’s remark that it could last until 2029 suggests a long road ahead, and how the new administration balances security with the concerns of lawyers and political parties will shape how it is judged. Read our reports on Governor Kundi’s first apex committee meeting and on the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule.

This article draws on reporting by ARY News, Dawn and The Express Tribune.