PESHAWAR: PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on Wednesday moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, requesting the court to declare the move unconstitutional.
The emergency, declared on Sunday, follows heightened tensions between the PML-N-led federal government and the PTI-led KP government. The Centre and opposition have been at odds over various issues, particularly the counterterrorism policy, which was one of the main reasons cited by both parties behind the breakdown of their Oct 3 talks.
Advocate Shah Faisal Ilyas on behalf of the PTI chairman submitted the petition requesting the PHC to declare the Oct 11 emergency proclamation as “unconstitutional, ultra vires, coram non judice, tainted with malice in law and fact, devoid of objective material, and of no legal effect”.
The court was further urged to set the proclamation aside.
Barrister Gohar is represented by a panel of lawyers, including Barrister Sameer Khosa, Salman Akram Raja, Ali Zaman, Sardar Haseeb Ahmad and Zainab Shahid.
As grounds for the petition, Barrister Gohar contended that the issuance of such a proclamation was subject to the “indispensable condition precedent of a prior resolution passed by the provincial assembly of that province”.
“No such resolution was ever moved, debated, or passed by the provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he contended.
Filed under Article 199 (jurisdiction of high court) of the Constitution, the petition named the Federation of Pakistan (through the secretaries of the Cabinet, law ministry, interior ministry and defence ministry); the province of KP; KP Governor Kundi; the KP Assembly speaker; and the secretary of the KP home and tribal affairs department as respondents.
Sohail Afridi, the now non-functional chief minister of the province following the imposition of governor’s rule, was also named as a pro forma respondent.
Barrister Gohar challenged the “constitutionality, legality and vires” of the Oct 11 Proclamation of Emergency in the province, the order deploying army troops to the province, and “all consequential and derivative executive orders, notifications, and bodies” constituted as a result, including the establishment of the KP Advisory Council and the “arbitrary” detention and unseating of Mr Afridi as the chief minister.
He urged the court to order the immediate constitutional restoration of Mr Afridi as the lawful chief minister of KP, along with his provincial cabinet, with full executive powers.
The plea urged the PHC to restrain the federation from “tabling, entertaining, or enacting any provincial legislative business concerning Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Parliament”.
The court was requested to declare as illegal and unconstitutional and to set aside, dissolve or permanently restrain all executive orders, notifications, actions, and bodies created “pursuant to or under the colour of” the proclamation.
The petitioner also challenged the Oct 11 order of army deployment under Article 245, requesting the court to declare it as unconstitutional on the basis that it could not “supplant or bypass the civilian executive and constitutional administration” of the province, and could not be invoked in the absence of a lawful requisition by Mr Afridi-led government.
He also sought directives for the immediate release of Mr Afridi and members of the KP cabinet and assembly from “unlawful executive or preventive detention”.
Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2026
