DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP RHETORIC DURING FLOOD CRISIS IN PAKISTAN IN 2025

Abstract

The present study focuses on how Pakistani political leaders discursively promote national identity during the 2025 flood crisis. Precisely, the main aim of this study to find the linguistic strategies used in leadership speech and to examine how these strategies promote unity, solidarity, and collective national perception. This research uses a qualitative research design and applying Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as the theoretical and methodological framework. The study mainly uses Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of discourse and van Dijk’s ideological approach for data analysis. These frameworks allow the analysis of language at textual, discursive, and social levels to discover the relationship between language, ideology, and power. The data for this research contains public speeches, official statements, and press conference remarks from key Pakistani political leaders during the 2025 flood crisis. These texts were collected through purposive sampling from official government sources and reliable news media. The analysis concentrated on linguistic features such as pronoun usage, metaphors, evaluative language, emotional appeals, and narratives of unity. The findings expose that political leaders often employed inclusive pronouns, metaphors of struggle and rebuilding, and emotionally charged language to promote a shared national identity. The flood crisis was outlined as a “national tragedy” and a “test of unity,” which encouraged collective duty and solidarity among citizens. The study highlights the important role of political discourse in shaping national identity and legitimizing leadership during crisis situations. These findings contribute to the understanding of how language functions as a tool of power, ideology, and nation-building in disaster communication.