The Politics Of Representation: An Analysis Of Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf And Pakistan Muslim League (N)

Abstract

Political representation unfolds in Pakistan’s hybrid political system, marked by institutional fragility, military influence, patronage networks and populist mobilization. This study comparatively analyzes Pakistan’s two leading parties i.e. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, hereafter referred to as PTI, and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz hereafter referred to as PML-N examining how each party constructs, negotiate and perform political representation. Data for the study were obtained via fieldwork conducted in Peshawar, Karak, and Bajaur districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Eighteen semi-structured interviews and three focus group discussions were held with the party workers in these three districts based on the logic of purposive sampling. With a theoretical framework combining Pitkin’s typology of representation, populism by Mudde (2004), hybrid regime by Levitsky & Way (2010), and patron-client theory by Chandra (2004), it was found that PTI’s representation incorporates a populist-symbolic mode rooted in a discourse against the elite while PML-N’s a patronage-developmental model grounded in elite brokerage and infrastructural governance. It was further found that the political system yields a personalized and institutionally mediated rather than programmatically institutionalized political representation.