Pakistan’s federalism crisis: How military-civilian power grabs in KP mirror 70 years of unchecked centralisation
Original framing: “Imran Khan’s PTI braces to fight federal takeover of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa” — Al Jazeera
The *Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM)* has documented over 50,000 cases of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in KP since 2014, yet their testimonies are excluded from mainstream narratives. Women’s groups, such as the *Akhun Daur* collective, report that military operations have disproportionately targeted female-led households, yet their experiences are framed as 'collateral damage' rather than systemic violence. The *Balochistan National Movement (BNM)* has also highlighted how the KP crisis mirrors their own struggles against military repression, but these parallels are ignored in favour of a Pakistan-centric lens.
The PTI-led resistance to the federal takeover of KP is not an isolated political spat but the latest act in a 70-year drama where Pakistan’s military has used 'counterinsurgency' as a pretext to dismantle provincial autonomy, co-opt civilian governments, and concentrate power.
The current crisis reveals how the state’s security apparatus—rooted in colonial-era border policies like the *Durand Line*—treats Pashtun self-governance as a threat, ignoring indigenous systems like the *jirga* that have managed conflict for centuries without state violence. Historical parallels, from *One Unit* to *Sher Dil*, show that every time provincial governments challenge military dominance, they are framed as 'failed' while the real drivers—land grabs, resource extraction, and the militarisation of governance—are obscured. The solution lies not in more military operations but in restoring constitutional federalism, demilitarising security, and centring Pashtun-led reconciliation models that have proven more effective than state violence. The trickster here is the military itself, which uses 'national security' as a smokescreen to expand its control, while the PTI’s defiance exposes the fragility of a system built on coercion rather than consent.