Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stated on Saturday that his administration had no choice but to impose emergency measures and Governor's Rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province governed by the opposition. Broadcasting reports attributed to Shehbaz a defence of the military action, grounded in what he described as a total breakdown of cooperation with the PTI-led government on counter-terrorism matters.

Justifying the move to strip the elected provincial administration of its governing powers, Shehbaz said the federal government had made what he described as a final attempt at dialogue before acting. He told reporters that a joint delegation drawn from both the ruling coalition and the opposition had held around-the-clock discussions with PTI representatives over a 48-hour period, with the aim of resolving all outstanding points, and that a draft agreement had been prepared under which PTI would bring its long march to an end.

Shehbaz noted that his schedule of consultations included multiple rounds of talks with Sohail Afridi — the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister whose office was rendered inactive in the wake of the crackdown — along with separate meetings held with Afridi's predecessor in that post, Ali Amin Gandapur. Speaking directly with the KP chief minister, the prime minister conveyed that federal support for the provincial government was guaranteed, and that decisions spanning administration, resources, and operations would be reached through ongoing consultation between the two.

Addressing reporters on the subject of opposition activity, Shehbaz Sharif described the federal government as having pursued multiple avenues toward resolution, while pointing to what he characterised as a pattern of rallies and long marches mounted in reply — a dynamic he linked to PTI's record of large-scale demonstrations, including the prolonged sit-ins the party organised at Islamabad's D-Chowk during the period when Nawaz Sharif held the office of prime minister in 2014. Citing a broadcast news outlet, he stated that the previous year's PTI-organised sit-in in Islamabad had brought normal activity across the country to a halt, an event that ultimately ended in confrontations between demonstrators and government security personnel.

A state of emergency was put into effect across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, 11 October, after President Asif Ali Zardari invoked Articles 232 and 234 of the country's constitution to authorise the measure. Under the decree, the elected provincial administration was dissolved and full governing authority — both administrative and political — passed into the hands of the provincial governor.

In the wake of the emergency decree, a wave of detentions swept through Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ranks, with former provincial chief minister Sohail Afridi among the prominent party figures taken into custody by authorities.

The International Human Rights Foundation issued a statement characterising emergency rule in Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province as a military-backed seizure of authority, and called for democratic rights there to be reinstated. The foundation posted on X to register its objections to conditions in the province following the declaration of an emergency, citing the deployment of military personnel, the detention of former Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, and restrictions placed on internet access, describing the situation as an army-backed consolidation of authority over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Calls for the release of Sohail Afridi and other detained figures have been put forward. The foundation's post stated that fundamental protections cannot be stripped away through executive order alone.