THE much-anticipated, and somewhat dreaded, emergency in KP was finally proclaimed by the president on Oct 11. The federal cabinet’s recommendation, the summary of the prime minister’s advice to the president, and the proclamation — all three momentous developments — occurred on the same day. The subsequent actions like taking the chief minister — non-functional but still the elected chief minister of the province — into preventive custody by his subordinate police from within the chief minister’s official residence along with many other senior elected officials; transfer and posting of senior and mid-level Civil Service officials; formation of an advisory council to help the governor in his newly acquired functions; the advisory council’s first meeting and the convening of the meeting of the long-neglected provincial apex committee took place within 48 hours of the proclamation, indicating that the federal government had done its homework in anticipation of the proclamation.

Besides debating whether the emergency would be imposed or not, the media had also been speculating about the specific article in Part X ‘Emergency Provisions’ of the Constitution that would be finally invoked. Articles 232 and 234 were the ‘favourites’ on TV talk shows and, in the end, the federal government did not disappoint either group betting on the choice of articles, as the proclamation invoked both Article 232 and 234. It seems that the government was not taking any chances. While Article 232 was apparently favoured because........

© Dawn