Last week, the government of Pakistan imposed emergency rule and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
asserted
government → impose → Pakhtunkhwa
The Pashtun-majority province, which shares a long border with Afghanistan, has been deeply shaped by events across the frontier.
asserted
which → share → frontier
KP’s instability escalated during the 1980s, when Gen Ziaul Haq’s dictatorship, backed by American and Saudi funding, transformed Pakistan into a launching pad for anti-Soviet Afghan Islamist insurgents.
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dictatorship → escalate → insurgents
After the Soviet withdrawal in 1988, Pakistan aligned with the Afghan Taliban (TTA), who took power in Kabul in 1996.
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who → align → 1996
Even after the US forces ousted the TTA in 2001, Pakistan provided TTA fighters sanctuary to counter the new regime in Kabul installed by the US.
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Pakistan → oust → US
In 2007, the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) emerged.
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Pakistan → emerge → 2007
While the TTA maintained ties with Pakistan’s security establishment, they also cultivated ideological links with the TTP.
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they → maintain → TTP
However, the TTA remained passive as the TTP carried out brutal attacks inside Pakistan.
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TTP → remain → Pakistan
Despite a major Pakistani military offensive (2015–2017) that displaced the TTP, Pakistan maintained the belief that the TTA were ‘good Taliban’ who would remain allies once in power.
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who → displace → power
TTP became the ‘bad Taliban.’
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TTP → become → ?
The strategy was as juvenile as it sounds.
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it → sound → ?
Under the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the government began resettling TTP fighters who had escaped to Afghanistan.
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who → begin → Afghanistan
There was no serious bar on them retaining their weapons and regrouping.
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them → be → weapons
Decades of contradictory policies towards the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban have left Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mired in insecurity.
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Decades → leave → insecurity
As the state imposes emergency rule in KP, the question is whether extraordinary powers can help correct the state’s longstanding strategic failures
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powers → impose → failures
Understandably, during the TTA’s return to power in 2021 in Afghanistan and Imran Khan’s ouster in 2022, the TTP launched a fresh wave of violent attacks, primarily in KP.
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TTP → launch → KP
The TTP had sensed that, after Khan’s fall, the policy of the new military establishment might shift.
uncertain
policy → sense → establishment
And it did.
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it → do → ?
Today, the federal government and military establishment accuse KP’s PTI-led provincial administration of shielding TTP elements.
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government → accuse → elements
Meanwhile, the ‘good versus bad Taliban’ strategy has crumbled as the TTA regime in Kabul refuses to stop TTP attacks and has begun cultivating ties with India.
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regime → crumble → India
According to the Pakistani government and the military establishment, the emergency in KP will sideline the PTI-led provincial administration, paving the way for a decisive military operation against the TTP that will be able to counter proxies backed by the TTA and India more effectively.
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that → accord → TTA
Emergencies are often viewed as dents in a democratic system.
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Emergencies → view → system
Indeed, but here I would explore it from another angle.
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I → explore → angle
There are political scientists, legal scholars and economists who have long observed that structural emergencies frequently act as catalysts for institutional growth.
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emergencies → be → growth
By fracturing rigid bureaucracies, overriding legislative inertia, regulating politicised security institutions and mobilising state capacity, there is a history of emergency conditions that have spurred economic advancement and curbed security threats.
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that → fracture → threats
In The Political Economy of States of Emergency, legal scholar Balakrishnan Rajagopal demonstrates that economic and national security emergencies historically drive states to centralise financial governance, rationalise labour markets and establish resilient public safety nets.
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emergencies → demonstrate → nets
Complementing this, the American sociologist Mancur Olson argued that emergencies dismantle entrenched interest groups.
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emergencies → complement → groups
These groups slow down economic growth and facilitate agitation.
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groups → slow → agitation
A clear historical example of this occurred during India’s 21-month emergency (1975–1977), declared by prime minister Indira Gandhi.
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example → occur → Gandhi
Prior to the declaration, India was experiencing severe economic stagflation, spiralling inflation driven by global oil shocks, constant industrial strikes and political violence.
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India → experience → shocks
As documented by the American legal historian Granville Austin, the centralisation of executive power through the emergency enabled the enforcement of a 20-point programme, clamping down on hoarding and strikes, which rapidly reduced inflation, increased industrial production and elevated tax compliance through stringent enforcement.
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which → document → enforcement
Violence against the state and government too decreased significantly.
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Violence → decrease → state
In South Korea, the state of emergency following the Korean War in the 1950s allowed state planners to initiate rapid, export-led industrialisation that transformed a devastated nation into a global economic power.
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that → follow → power
In his book Constitutional Dictatorship, American political scientist Clinton Rossiter argued that temporary emergency powers are necessary mechanisms designed precisely to preserve constitutional order during existential threats.
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powers → argue → threats
According to Rossiter, far from destroying the legal framework, well-regulated emergency powers allow democracies to deploy decisive force to restore order without permanent constitutional erosion.
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democracies → accord → erosion
In Singapore, early post-independence security emergencies led to the establishment of streamlined administrative and judicial frameworks that laid the foundation for one of the world’s most stable, low-crime and commercially reliable legal environments.
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that → lead → environments
According to Austin, in India, periods of national emergency eventually led the judiciary to refine constitutional protections, such as establishing the “basic structure doctrine” to balance executive emergency authority with civil liberties.
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periods → accord → liberties
This structural tightening creates a durable framework that lowers everyday crime rates and clarifies rule-of-law standards after the crisis subsides.
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crisis → create → standards
Emergencies also provide governments with the operational flexibility required to dismantle sophisticated clandestine networks, disrupt their financial channels and re-establish state sovereignty over ungoverned spaces.
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Emergencies → provide → spaces
In Inside Terrorism, American political scientist Bruce Hoffman highlights that anti-terror operations require agility that standard peacetime administrative frameworks rarely afford.
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frameworks → highlight → that
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
