Questions of provincial boundary revision and a wider entrenchment of military control in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been raised by some observers following the decision to impose emergency governance on the region, remove the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf administration under Imran Khan, and deploy Army units — steps that, in their view, point toward an expanding role for Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir in reshaping the province's political and territorial arrangements.

Shehzad Akbar, who held the accountability portfolio under Imran Khan, has put forward claims that Munir is working to erode the autonomy of provinces, tighten federal grip over natural resources, and reshape how funds are divided between the central government and provincial administrations. In a television interview, Akbar put forward the view that Munir posed a risk to national stability, arguing that demographic and territorial changes within Pakistan could be used to reshape the distribution of public resources. He drew a comparison to Sir Cyril Radcliffe, the British lawyer who delineated the subcontinent's borders during the 1947 partition, to make the point that Munir ought not to hold unilateral authority over any equivalent redrawing of the country's boundaries.

The remarks by Akbar arrived at a time when tensions between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's federal administration and PTI — the party holding power in KP — had been building into an open dispute. Justifications put forward by federal authorities pointed to worsening security on the ground and what they described as a breakdown in cooperation from the provincial administration over efforts to address Islamist militancy. PTI officials characterised the action as a constitutionally disguised power grab, arguing that the province's governing rights were being eroded by decisions taken in Islamabad.

Gohar Ali Khan, who chairs the PTI, described the emergency declaration as a political error that also ran against democratic principles, adding that residents of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had a constitutional right to have their vote at the ballot box respected. Lasting peace, he argued, depended on keeping provincial autonomy intact and avoiding any direct clash between the federation and the province. PTI representatives announced plans to contest the ruling across constitutional, legal, and democratic avenues.

Qaiser, who previously served as National Assembly speaker, voiced opposition to both governor's rule and emergency measures, while separately arguing that federal policy choices had played a part in bringing about the security situation — even as he stated his own opposition to terrorism. Junaid Akbar, who leads PTI in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, stated that the party's march would press on in spite of the federal government's involvement, while also urging authorities to act on the peace jirga's unanimous resolution and characterising the emergency as a violation of the province's constitutional rights.

Demonstrators at Peshawar University gathered on the grounds in opposition to the imposition of emergency and governor's rule, with chants directed against both measures.

Under Article 245 of the Constitution, a directive from the Interior and Narcotics Control Ministry dated 11 October gave formal approval for Army personnel and equipment to be deployed across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Forces placed under the order are to remain active throughout the emergency proclamation period, covering the protection of people, property, and government facilities. The KP governor holds responsibility for determining the troop count and equipment required, following consultation with the Army's General Headquarters Military Operations Directorate.

Akbar contended that the PTI-run provincial administration had pushed back against proposals — put forward in federal-level talks with the US — relating to the extraction of mines, minerals, and rare earth elements. Separately, unnamed security sources quoted by a prominent broadcaster indicated that the armed forces sought a stronger hand in overseeing KP's mineral resources, a position the provincial authorities had not supported. Akbar also put forward the view that moves to alter provincial borders risk stirring pushback elsewhere in Pakistan, notably in Sindh — a province where the Pakistan Peoples Party holds a substantial base of electoral support and where questions of regional identity carry considerable political weight.

In invoking Sir Cyril Radcliffe, Akbar referenced the English barrister who headed the twin boundary commissions that carved up British India along new national lines in 1947. Charged with delineating the boundaries that would split British India into two sovereign states — India and Pakistan — Radcliffe came to the task without any prior familiarity with the subcontinent. His time in the country amounted to a matter of weeks before administratively drawn boundaries partitioned vast populations from their places of origin, setting off widespread displacement and communal conflict.

Under the NFC Award framework, decisions about how money flows between Pakistan's central administration and its provincial governments are set out and enforced. Ratified in 2010, the 18th Constitutional Amendment transferred a broader range of governing powers from the federal level down to the provinces.

The claims put forward by Akbar point to a dispute over KP that stretches beyond security and governance, touching on who controls natural resources, how funds are distributed, and where authority ultimately rests between the provinces and the federal centre.

A broadcast outlet reported that an 11-member oversight body, placed under the direction of Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, was put in place by Sharif to handle governance and security matters in KP after emergency rule took effect. No formal notice accompanied the body's establishment, which took shape through informal channels rather than any sanctioned process. Governance and security matters are to be tracked on a day-to-day basis, with findings passed along to Sharif.

A newly formed advisory council of eleven members — positioned by the federal government as the equivalent of a gubernatorial cabinet — has been put in place to handle the administration of KP. The law minister, Barrister Aqeel, indicated that both the emergency and governor's rule may remain in place past the six-month mark, with any extension tied to how the security situation develops.