Peshawar is easing back into a working day under KP Governor Rule. The Associated Press of Pakistan reported on Monday that vehicles are moving again on main routes in the provincial capital, Nowshera and neighbouring districts, while government and private workplaces have resumed. Campuses have not: classes remain suspended. Lawyers quoted by APP called the governor’s charge of the province, with the emergency steps beside it, a constitutional path if security keeps worsening and the provincial cabinet fails to meet its duties, above all against militancy.
Why lawyers defend the step
Senior advocate Malik Ashfaq told APP that the President may step into a province’s affairs when its government cannot work inside constitutional bounds. Articles 232 and 234, he said, supply the method for unusual moments when a province’s security, civic peace or constitutional government is in danger.
If disorder outruns the provincial machinery, he said, those clauses can be used to steady public life, reassert the state’s authority and keep administration going. Any such arrangement, he added, should last only while the Constitution allows it, and should lapse once the danger has eased.
Ashfaq welcomed an Advisers Council formed to help Faisal Karim Kundi, the governor of KP. Its members, he said, bring deep experience from their own lines of work, and he hoped they would use it for residents and for sounder public services.
APP’s list includes Asif Rafiq, Maulana Tayyab Qureshi and Kifayatullah Khan. Retired lieutenant general Nigar Johar is named alongside Tariq Mehmood Pasha. Also on the council are Usman Saifullah Khan, lawyer Amir Javed, Dr Muhammad Irshad, Dr Syed Amir Abdullah and Dr Sarfraz Ali Shah.
The governor’s first council sitting
Opening that council, Kundi said his administration will keep trying to calm KP, rebuild state authority and act together against militancy across the province. He greeted the members in their new role, called the province’s problems severe, and promised careful decisions without long waits. Graft, he said, will be given no room. He will also summon the Provincial Apex Committee to look again at security.
Message to the province
In remarks to residents, Kundi said the unusual constitutional steps responded to extraordinary conditions, and that the aim was peace, safety, stability and development rather than party advantage. He paid respects to police officers and to soldiers. He also mentioned Levies personnel, civil servants and religious scholars, together with teachers and traders, and other residents who have borne losses against militancy.
He said the province should now receive its “right to peace”. The struggle, he said, is against militancy and against the networks, helpers and conditions that let it grow. Pakhtuns did not produce this violence, he added; they have suffered it more than any other community. Protecting residents will remain his first charge.
He pledged a stronger police service and a reinforced Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), the unit that pursues militant cases, so officers sent against armed groups have real backing from the state. Families of police personnel who have been killed will get full help. He wants the administration’s hold tightened in districts that remain troubled.
He said poorer districts marked by militancy, by displacement and by long deprivation should get a fair share of schooling, clinics, work, roads, power and water. Officials must become more answerable, he said, and residents should be given a larger role. The drive against militancy will take in helpers, money channels, hiring routes, illegal arms, narcotics and unlawful travel.
He put the National Action Plan, along with other anti-militancy tools, near the top of his agenda, including protection for the province’s youth. The special measures, he said, are not aimed at any party, person or social group. Their purpose is sturdier institutions, legality, an end to militancy and relief for people, while constitutional and legal rights remain intact.
What changed on the streets
Kundi later chaired another security huddle with senior civil officers and law-enforcement heads. They were briefed at length on security, anti-militancy work and the state of order. The huddle kept educational sites closed on security grounds and called for containers at several Peshawar spots to be taken away.
With KP Governor Rule the setting APP reports, Monday’s visible change was open roads and shut classrooms. Zaviya has reported on the imposition itself and on Articles 232 and 234. A further note looks at how long the arrangement might last.
