Imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-ruled Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province by Shehbaz Sharif’s government last Sunday has serious ramifications for Rawalpindi General Headquarters (GHQ), with Field Marshal Asim Munir’s military opening another front in Pakistan.
Second, the PTI’s provincial government has been dismissed on grounds of its failure to take action against terrorist groups like Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Munir accuses of getting cross-border support from the Taliban administration in Afghanistan. The Pakistan Air Force has also bombed these areas through aerial strikes. Afghanistan under Taliban is seething in rage to avenge the bombing by Pakistan Air Force—and hence Islamabad has its western front also opened. Pakistan has live insurgencies like that in Balochistan. Now KPK could erupt, creating a serious internal security situation west of Indus river.
Even though it is the Pakistan Army that is currently participating in Operation Azm-e-Istehkam against terrorists in KPK since June 2024, it has absolved itself of all burden by putting the blame of not taking action against terrorists on the provincial government. Fact is that the Pakistan Army, now under Munir, has launched no less than 16 counter-terrorist operations in KPK—from Op al-Mzan to Op Zarb-e-Azb to Op Radd ul-Fassad in the past 25 years without success. Finally, India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has still not called off Opersation Sindoor after the 2025 Pahalgam massacre; so Pakistan is vulnerable on its eastern front as well.
