EXPLORING THE PREDOMINANT DISCOURSES IN INTERNATIONAL MEDIA REGARDING THE ‘REGIME CHANGE’ (2022) IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

The removal of Mr. Imran Khan and the subsequent change of government in April 2022 in Pakistan gave rise to a variety of political discourses through the politicians and media around the world. The political discourse ranged from the ‘democratic process’, ‘win of democracy’, ‘no-confidence motion’, ‘foreign conspiracy’, to the ‘regime change’. Ousted PM Mr. Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), conflated the change of government to ‘regime change operation’ with the help of ‘external elements’ i.e. ‘foreign conspiracy’. However, the consequent government of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) - an anti-PTI political alliance of 13 parties, claimed the change of government as a ‘success of democracy’ with the help ‘no-confidence motion’. This research endeavor is an attempt to explore and analyze how did the selected newspapers from the USA, UK, India and Turkey portray the ‘regime change’ in Pakistan in their news coverage. Within the premise of framing analysis, the researchers have explored and analyzed the issues highlighted by the selected newspapers. The findings of this research show that none of the newspapers has supported the discourse of ‘regime change’, and ‘foreign conspiracy’ as claimed by the ousted PM Mr. Imran Khan. However, there is evidence that all the newspapers have described the change of government as a result of the ‘success of no-confidence motion’.