Rhetoric of a Populist in Power: An Exploration of the Construction of Identities in Imran Khan’s Political Imaginary (2018-2022)

Abstract

Imran Khan, former Prime Minister of Pakistan (2018-2022), has been hailed by many as a populist leader. This made it compulsory to apply a theory of populism on his political personality. For this purpose, Jan Werner Müller’s theory of populism was employed. 10 speeches of different kinds given by Khan while he was in power were selected for discourse analysis. For discourse analysis, Ruth Wodak’s Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) was used. It was found that Khan considers the society to be ultimately divided into two homogenous and antagonistic groups (the real people and the corrupt elite) based on moral legitimacy and illegitimacy. It is noteworthy that, in Khan's political worldview, these social divisions extend beyond individual entities such as himself, the general populace, or fellow politicians, as institutions also undergo dynamic shifts in it over time. For asserting extreme antagonism between these two social camps, Khan mostly uses superlative language. It was found that Khan emphasizes more on his imagined moral legitimacy to power rather than empirical legitimacy.