PTI dares government to impose governor's rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Senior PTI leader Naeem Haider Panjutha has challenged the federal government to go ahead with imposing governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, warning that the move would “further deteriorate the situation in the province”, Dawn reported on Monday.

“You have no idea what the people of KP are capable of. They will rise up and sweep your governor’s rule away,” Panjutha told Dawn, as he listed what he called government actions against the party, including the imprisonment of Imran Khan. He said PTI would never retreat from its struggle for “Haqeeqi Azadi” (true freedom) until, in his words, constitutional supremacy was restored and political prisoners were released.

The challenge came amid rising calls at the Centre for governor’s rule in the PTI-ruled province. KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi disclosed in Peshawar on September 25 that consultations had been held over the possibility ahead of PTI’s protest march, which was scheduled for September 27 but later postponed to October 4.

PTI’s parliamentary leader Shahid Khattak questioned the purpose of remaining in parliament and proposed resigning from the assemblies and taking the struggle to the streets. “We are not afraid of arrest. We are not afraid of bullets, guns or any form of pressure,” he said, adding that a rally would take place “under all circumstances” until Imran Khan and other political prisoners were freed.

Separately, KP Speaker Babar Saleem Swati on Sunday wrote to provincial police chief Zulfiqar Hameed seeking details of lawmakers who had been arrested or detained, residences of lawmakers raided or searched, and copies of FIRs from the last two weeks, a copy of which is available with Dawn.

Sources

• Ikram Junaidi and Umar Farooq, Dawn, “PTI dares govt to impose governor’s rule in KP”, 28 September 2026: https://www.dawn.com/news/2033143/pti-dares-govt-to-impose-governors-rule-in-kp