Political Upheaval in Pakistan and the Indexing of National Political Leaders in the Press

Abstract

In April 2022, Pakistan went through another political and constitutional crisis. For the first time in Pakistan's history, a democratically elected Prime Minister was removed from office by a no-confidence motion. Although no Prime Minister could complete the constitutional five-year term due to the influential military and judicial interventions, this instance was unique in its kind. In Pakistan, the press produced political debates as much as political narratives. Drawing on the Indexing theory proposed by Lance Bennett (1990; 2016) this research is an effort to explore how to have the Dawn, The Express Tribune, The Nation, and The News International index Mr Imran Khan, Ms Maryam Nawaz, and Mr. Bilawal Bhutto during May to October 2022. It is pertinent to identify the key indexing elements within the news coverage of the selected political leaders by the selected newspapers. The results indicate that there is a considerable variation in the indexing of political figures across the selected newspapers, suggesting the presence of potential biases in their reporting.