Political discourse is inarguably deemed an essential tool, impercetably influencing people’s perception within a socio-political zone. The present research revolve around the critical discourse analysis of manifestos of Pakistani political parties, pertaining to the general election of 2013. The theoretical framework for the study triangulates VanDijks (1998) Socio-Cognitive Model, along with the support of Turner and Tajfels (1979) Social identity approach and Budge and Farlies Salience theory (1983). The research revealed that all the political parties under study used the discursive strategies in their party manifestos in order to enhance the positive self-image of party to in-group people, by focusing the negative aspects of the out-group, thereby (re)constructing peoples political identities and ideologies and achieving the desired hegemony for itself.

Modern innovation in communication has changed patterns of socializing. Advance forms of communication are paving ways for people to convey their ideologies to others. This study attempts to analyze the role of social media in strengthening democracy in Pakistan and highlights the importance of media in democratic states by an extensive review of the literature. The core concern of the study was to observe how mass media contributes to the socialization of democracy. Quantitative research methodology opted, and research findings concluded that social media advocates the public on general political issues that increase the political efficacy and resulting in more political participation in Pakistan. Web 2.0 platforms such as Twitter and Facebook provide new opportunities to create a political environment in Pakistan. In the presence of these platforms, a bridge is developed between the citizens for strengthening a strong democratic setup.

Journey Metaphors are among the most pervasive source domains used both in daily life and in political discourse as they follow a clearcut source-path-goal schema where the direction is a fundamental element. The crossdomain mapping between source and target domains is a means of gaining insight into the cognitive activity of the speaker. Metaphors of the journey are widely used in the political discourse generated by Imran Khan with special emphasis upon direction. Metaphorical expressions identified from speeches of Imran in both English and Urdu language have been analyzed using the Critical Metaphor Analysis approach given by Charteris-Black (2005) where linguistic metaphors have been interpreted semantically, pragmatically and in cognition to generate conceptual metaphors. Khan’s obsession with direction activates the PAKISTAN IS OFF TRACK conceptual metaphor necessitating a journey of change under his leadership. He highlights the failures of others to evoke images of a destructive past from which freedom becomes essential.

Gender and development approach gained attention during the 1990s, since then government and nongovernmental organizations adopted these approaches for gender and political empowerment in Pakistan. This paper analyzes the contribution of NGO towards gender and political empowerment in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This study explored how NGOs interventions created opportunities for gender and political empowerment. This study presents an analysis of NGO policies and practices for gender and political empowerment in the research area. Qualitative research methods including semi-structured interviews and participant observations were used to conduct this study. The study revealed that NGOs created spaces for political awareness and participation of men and women community members, councilors and policymakers. This study argues that NGOs interventions can create opportunities and effectively contribute to gender and political empowerment goals if contextually planned and implemented in the research area.

Political polarization remains central to the political behavior scholarship. In this study, political polarization patterns among the youth of Pakistan with reference to selective exposure approaches of media were examined. Survey from 420 students of Pakistan public sector universities was conducted. It was found that selective exposure to media is still strong in Pakistan, however diverse exposure is also being witnessed in Pakistan. Now the people are also diverting towards diverse exposure. Consequently, political polarization among the university students of Pakistan is still strong. Findings imply that media in Pakistan is playing an important role in strengthening the democracy in Pakistan. Furthermore, it is also concluded that media played a key role to determine voters’ choice during Elections-2013 in Pakistan.

The main objective of the research was to find out the preference wise list of western televised programming among the viewers in Islamabad. By applying the stratified sampling technique, 292 respondents were finalized for analysis. It was found that entertainment programming was mostly consumed western televised contents and then, educational and political. The usage of western televised contents was assessed due to dissatisfaction about their own programming, educational and political systems. They preferred the western programming and systems comparatively a better choice.

The political debates are the major indicators to open a dialogue and to set the tone of politics in society. The elections' debates in Pakistan are directly linked with the nature of the state and its ideological and elite composition. The post-colonial state structure and its reflection in electoral politics is a dominant determining factor which led to induce order through objectifying in existing electoral status quo. The dominant forces on the electoral scene have the power to interpret the existing knowledge production and debate for their own interest. Both objectivities and subjectivities in which electoral debates operate are in control of the post-colonial state structure. This paper is an attempt to explore the articulation of electoral debates in academic knowledge production. Further, how does existing academic debate explain the nature of electoral politics? Why?The purposively selected academic debates on elections revolved around functionalist and interpretivist paradigms influenced by the existing debate between subjectivity and objectivity. The descriptive method has been applied in exploring a research question under study.

This paper is an effort to de-construct the two opposite ideas of hope and despair in Ahmed Ali's Twilight in Delhi and Khushwant Singh's Delhi. The comparative points of view regarding Delhi by Singh and Ali serve to construct the ideological, political and ontological framing of Delhi. The paper explores the significance of Delhi as a symbol of political energy which distributes power or snatches it as an active agent of power-history. The paper exhibits the socio-political, economic and communal structures portrayed by Ali and Singh. The study is an effort to detect the system of representation in the metaphor of Delhi in the context of power-resistance and failure of the struggle against the Raj. The paper tries to show that both Ali and Singh see Delhi with a difference of outlook and literary approach to manifest hope and despair.

The study explores the transformation in great power politics and factors affecting the dynamics of the Middle Eastern political landscape, such as the relationships between ideological arch-rivals of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Israel. The closing up of the relationship between KSA and Israel is a historic transformation, holding immense potential embodying change in the strategic landscape of the Middle East. The article argues that the changing dynamics of global power politics has polarised the political dynamics of the Middle Eastern region along opposite poles. The US, China and Russian involvement in the Middle Eastern region have pushed the ideological arch-rival of KSA to the US and Israel, pushing Iran to tilt towards Russia and China in the region. Therefore, the significance of the study lies in the changing nature of international structure and the way this shift has impacted the inter-dynamics of Saudi-Israeli cooperation in the Middle East.