Petition Filed Against KP Emergency as Lahore Lawyers Plan Supreme Court Case

A petition challenging the emergency and governor's rule imposed on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reached the Peshawar High Court on October 12, less than 24 hours after President Asif Ali Zardari signed the proclamation that removed Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and his cabinet from office.

What the petition argues

The petition, filed by an advocate named Salman, names President Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Governor Faisal Karim Kundi as respondents. It argues the proclamation — issued under Articles 232(1) and 234(1) of the Constitution — is "unconstitutional, illegal and motivated by mala fide intentions," and that it violates fundamental rights and the province's democratic mandate, according to 24NewsHD and ARY News. It asks the court for two things: a declaration that the emergency and governor's rule are null and void, and an interim suspension of the proclamation while the case is heard.

The petition also raises a more immediate complaint, ARY News reported: road closures that followed the imposition of governor's rule, it says, have made it difficult for ordinary people to reach the Peshawar High Court and district courts in the province.

A second front opens in Lahore

The Peshawar petition was not the only legal move on Monday. At a joint meeting in Lahore, the Lahore High Court Bar Association and the Lahore Bar Association decided to file their own petition in the Supreme Court. "The Lahore High Court Bar and Lahore Bar are jointly filing a petition in the Supreme Court against this illegal move," LHCBA president Babar Murtaza Khan said, according to 24NewsHD. Lahore Bar president Irfan Hayat Bajwa and senior lawyer Hamid Khan were also at the meeting, which was followed by a march toward Lahore's GPO Chowk that police stopped before it reached Mall Road.

Khan said Pakistan's Lawyers' Action Committee, a national body that coordinates bar associations across the country, would meet at the Karachi Bar on October 13 to decide on further steps.

The government's response

Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said on Monday that PTI was free to challenge the emergency in court if it had reservations, and that Parliament would separately examine the proclamation's constitutional validity, ARY News reported. He blamed PTI for not cooperating with the federal government on counterterrorism in the province — the justification the federal cabinet gave Sunday for invoking Articles 232 and 234.

Why the courts matter here

Afridi has said for weeks that only a vote of no-confidence in the provincial assembly can lawfully remove a sitting chief minister, not a presidential proclamation. Our earlier coverage of the imposition itself noted that no court challenge had yet been confirmed; two have now been set in motion within a day; a third, through Parliament, is also promised. None of the three has produced a ruling, an admitted petition number, or a hearing date yet.

What to watch next

The Peshawar High Court has not yet scheduled a hearing on the petition before it, and the Lahore bar associations have not yet filed their Supreme Court case. Whether either court grants an interim suspension of the proclamation — rather than simply admitting the case for a later hearing — will determine whether the dispute over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's governance stays a political standoff or becomes a live constitutional case decided on a bench.

Build Better Pakistan's Politics Desk is tracking the legal challenges to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's governor's rule alongside the broader governance crisis in the province.