Pakistan suspends PTI-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Pakistan’s federal government suspended the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led provincial administration in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after President Asif Ali Zardari approved emergency and governor’s rule on October 11, setting off a political dispute and detentions across the province. The measures are to remain in place for six months. The federal government says the intervention is needed because the provincial administration failed to address militancy and worsening security. PTI rejects that allegation and says the action undermines provincial autonomy. Two police officials told AFP that 278 PTI members had been detained in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since the emergency declaration. The figure was reported by multiple accounts drawing on the same officials. The party’s chief minister, Sohail Afridi, was also taken into custody, but accounts differ over whether he was arrested. PTI said he had been arrested; government officials said he was in preventive or protective custody and had not been arrested. Police were deployed in Peshawar on Monday, with barriers restricting traffic near the administrative zone.