Peshawar High Court Issues Notices on KP Emergency, Adjourns to November 10

A Peshawar High Court bench issued notices to the federal government on October 20 over petitions challenging the emergency and governor's rule imposed on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and adjourned the case to November 10 after hearing preliminary arguments, the Express Tribune reported. The order marks the first substantive court action on the petitions since they were filed in the days after President Asif Ali Zardari proclaimed the emergency on October 11.

What the bench did

A division bench of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Muhammad Faheem Wali took up several petitions together, including one filed by PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan. The court issued notices to the federal government, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan and the KP advocate general, and said it would examine the petitioners' request for interim relief before passing a formal order. Rather than ruling immediately, the bench adjourned the matter to November 10, giving the respondents time to file replies.

Who is challenging the emergency

The petitions before the bench came from several different directions: Gohar's as PTI chairman, National Democratic Movement leaders including Mohsin Dawar, PTI leader Shandana Gulzar, the KP Bar Council and leaders of the Tehreek-i-Tahafuz-i-Ayin-i-Pakistan. That breadth echoes the two separate legal fronts that opened within a day of the proclamation, when an advocate's petition reached the Peshawar High Court and the Lahore High Court Bar Association announced it would file a parallel case in the Supreme Court.

The core constitutional argument

Gohar's counsel, Barrister Sameer Khosa, told the bench that the proviso to Article 232(1) made a resolution from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly mandatory before an emergency could be imposed, and that no such resolution was passed. He noted that Parliament's subsequent endorsement — the National Assembly and Senate sessions President Zardari summoned on October 13 — came only after the measure had taken effect, and said the petitioners were separately contesting that approval in a miscellaneous application before the same bench.

A case that has moved slower than the politics around it

In the two weeks since the emergency took effect, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's governance crisis has produced a governor-appointed administration, a parliamentary endorsement of the measure and a continuing PTI protest march toward Islamabad, while the central legal question — whether the proclamation itself was constitutional — has remained open. The October 20 hearing is the first point at which a court has formally engaged with that question rather than simply registering a petition, even though it stopped short of granting the interim suspension petitioners sought.

What to watch

The federal government, the attorney general and the KP advocate general now have until November 10 to file their replies, after which the bench is expected to take up the question of interim relief directly. Whether the court grants that relief — effectively pausing the emergency while the case proceeds — or leaves governor's rule in place pending a fuller hearing will shape how the next stage of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's governance dispute plays out.

Build Better Pakistan's Politics Desk is tracking the legal challenges to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's governor's rule and will update this piece after the November 10 hearing.