What do emergency and governor rule in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mean?

Pakistan has taken control of a province governed by Imran Khan’s PTI. Here is what the move means and what happens next. Save Share Islamabad, Pakistan –The federal government has taken direct control of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the northwestern province governed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party until now. President Asif Ali Zardari signed a proclamation on Sunday, on the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, imposing a state of emergency and declaring that the provincial government could no longer function in accordance with the Constitution, the legal basis for governor’s rule. On Monday, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said the province’s chief minister, Sohail Afridi, was detained. “The fundamental grounds for imposition of emergency are law and order, fight against terrorism, and to save innocent people from the dreadful consequences of terrorist activities,” Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said at a news conference in Islamabad on Sunday, alongside Information Minister Ataullah Tarar, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other officials. PTI, which has governed the province since 2013, has rejected the move. It came after talks collapsed between the federal government and the PTI over a planned march to Islamabad demanding the party leader’s release. Here is what the two measures mean, who now runs the province and how long the arrangement could last. Under the government’s decision, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi will take over the functions of the provincial government. Kundi belongs to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), an ally of Sharif’s government. Parliament — where Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), the PPP and their other allies hold a majority — takes over the powers of the provincial assembly, where PTI has a majority. The chief minister, ministers, advisers, special assistants and advocate general “shall forthwith cease to hold office”, the proclamation says. Hassan Abdullah Niazi, a Lahore-based lawyer and adjunct faculty member at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), offered a different interpretation. “However, this does not mean that the KP Assembly or its elected chief minister have been permanently removed. It is more akin to thinking they are dysfunctional until the emergency is lifted, at which point they must be restored,” he told Al Jazeera. An 11-member advisory council will assist Kundi....