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Internet connectivity in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was disrupted after the president imposed emergency rule in the province on Sunday, according to the global monitor NetBlocks. Users say Wi-Fi started working again on Monday morning.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa internet disruption began as the federal government suspended the provincial administration led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Users report that both mobile data and Wi-Fi stopped working.
What NetBlocks reported
In a post on X late Sunday, NetBlocks said its network data showed a “major disruption to Internet connectivity in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.” It linked the outage to President Asif Ali Zardari’s imposition of emergency rule and to protests demanding the release of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
Reports from users in the province say mobile SIM data stopped working and Wi-Fi went down as well. Wi-Fi began working again on Monday morning.
The political backdrop
The president declared a state of emergency and suspended the KP government led by PTI. The federal government said that administration had failed to tackle militancy in the province, which borders Afghanistan.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said Governor Faisal Karim Kundi would take charge in KP. Hours later, the interior ministry authorized the deployment of army troops and assets to assist the civilian administration, according to a directive.
The move came about a week after PTI supporters gathered in the province intending to march on Islamabad. The march began Sunday from Lakki Marwat, led by Sohail Afridi, who had been in charge of the province and is a close aide of Khan. PTI members claim his arrest after the imposition of emergency in the province.
PTI spokesperson Zulfikar Bukhari called the emergency “more of a coup disguised as emergency,” saying it risks further instability and aims to stop the march. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the government tried to avoid an emergency and had told PTI it had “no issue” with a march to the capital. His stated concern was terrorism.
A pattern with precedents
Connectivity restrictions around political events are not new in Pakistan. In May 2023, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) confirmed it had suspended mobile broadband nationwide on the interior ministry’s instructions after Khan’s arrest. In November 2024, the federal government had decided to partially suspend internet and mobile services in Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab ahead of a PTI protest.
Some KP residents were already living with weak connectivity. In June, residents of Lower South Waziristan said mobile internet had been fully suspended in several areas for about two months, and they appealed to the PTA to restore it.
Why it matters
An outage that takes down both mobile and fixed-line access leaves people with no fallback. Students, delivery riders, small online sellers, and offices rely on one or the other, and often both.
It also affects verification. When connectivity drops during a political standoff, claims move faster than confirmation. Users cannot check what is happening around them, and outsiders cannot check what users report.
Wi-Fi returning on Monday morning suggests the disruption was not permanent, but it does not explain it. The questions left are whether mobile data has come back, whether it spread beyond “parts” of KP, and whether the PTA or the interior ministry will say what happened. Until they do, the verified facts are NetBlocks’ reading of the network data and users’ accounts.
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