The reason cited by President Asif Zardari was 'a surge in terrorist attacks on infrastructure, government installations and law enforcement agencies.'

Although PTI MPs raised placards and shouted slogans against the move, Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif had the numbers.

KP is the fourth province to experience political turmoil over the last year. But the trigger for the declaration of emergency was something more innocuous: a long march by PTI members demanding medical treatment for their chief and founder, Imran Khan, ex-prime minister, who has been in jail for the last three years.

He's not the only one: popular Pashtun leaders such as Ali Wazir of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement also remain in jail. The ruling politicians in Islamabad are looking for replacements, meaning pliable people who can ensure order in the province. But pliable people are rarely ever able to do that.

At the same time the rising level of violence in KP is something Shahbaz Sharif cannot ignore. Since March this year, there are five documented reports of attacks including the simultaneous hit on nine districts killing 11 security personnel.

In June, 16 soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive laden vehicle into a military convoy in Waziristan, and in Swat a peace rally was targeted in which 17 people were killed.

There followed the bombing of a police check point in Dera Ismail Khan last month in which 11 people died and earlier this month, armed clashes in the Tirah Valley left multiple people dead.

The army's priority should have been to focus on the violence and tackle it but the focus is on politics. There's speculation the army chief Gen Asim Munir is toying with the idea of smaller provinces and therefore the removal of the elected government.