Pakistan’s attempt to tighten its grip on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa exposes a familiar contradiction in the country’s political order: the state invokes security to justify measures that may ultimately make the country less secure. By curtailing political activity in a province governed by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Islamabad risks converting an already bitter political confrontation into a deeper institutional crisis. The federal government has justified emergency measures by accusing the provincial administration of collusion with terrorists.

Such an allegation, if supported by credible evidence, would demand serious investigation. But without a convincing public explanation, the intervention invites suspicion that counterterrorism is serving as a convenient rationale for weakening an opposition that has refused to disappear despite its leader’s imprisonment. Khan has been behind bars since 2023, convicted in corruption cases that he maintains are politically motivated. His continued popularity demonstrates that imprisonment alone cannot extinguish a political movement rooted in public disaffection.

Restrictions on demonstrations, arrests of party activists and uncertainty surrounding the provincial leadership may disrupt its immediate mobilisation, but they cannot resolve the underlying contest over........

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