Date/Time: Thursday, September 28, 2023 — 10:00-12:30 (CET)
This panel is jointly organised by The European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS) and The Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADI) .
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Moderator
Dr Susan de Groot Heupner (Associate Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation in Melbourne, Australia).
Speakers
“Imran Khan’s Populist Narratives: An Analysis,” by Dr Samina Yasmeen (Professor, Head of Department of International Relations, Asian Studies and Politics in University of Western Australia’s School of Social Sciences).
“Media and Populism in Pakistan” by Ramsha Jahangir (A media professional and researcher).
“The Land of Pure: Islamic Populism in Pakistan’s Identity Project and the Rise of Radical Islam,” by Dr Fizza Batool(Assistant Professor of Social Sciences at SZABIST University, Karachi, Pakistan).
“Military and Populism in Pakistan,” by Dr Raja M. Ali Saleem (Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Centre for Public Policy and Governance at Forman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan).
“‘I Am Democracy’: The Appeal of Imran’s Khan’s Populism for Pakistani Women,” Dr Afiya Shehrbano Zia (Pakistani feminist researcher on gender and social development).
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Brief Biographies and Abstracts
Dr Susan de Groot Heupner is a political sociologist with a research focus on populist mobilisations and the formation of hegemonic ideological constructions. She is an Adjunct Fellow at the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research in Brisbane, Australia, where she works on civilisational fantasies and politics. In the position of Senior Researcher, she also coordinates a large survey on Indigenous media and broadcasting in Australia at Griffith University. In the position of Associate Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation in Melbourne, Australia, she works on two Australian Research Council projects examining religious populism, transnational polarisation, and emotive mobilisation. She is Managing Editor for the Journal of Alternative and Community Media, and Editorial Board member for the Political Sociology section at Sociology Compass. She has published in journals such as Politics and Religion, Religions, Journal of Intercultural Studies, and Journal of International Communication, and has a forthcoming monograph with Leiden University Press. She has also contributed to public media platforms like The Conversation and Enlighten.
Imran Khan’s Populist Narratives: An Analysis
Professor Samina Yasmeen heads the Department of International Relations, Asian Studies and Politics in University of Western Australia’s School of Social Sciences. She is a teacher and researcher, and director and founder of the university’s Centre for Muslim States and Societies. She focuses on understanding perceptions of and by Muslims and Islam around the world and seeks to make an impact on Australian and global politics.
Abstract: The presentation would focus on the use of narratives by populist leaders, and locate Imran khan’s narrative-building since April 2022. It would identify the ‘ideal state’ promoted as the aim of his rallies and online presentations, his analysis of the current state of Pakistan and the need for agentic activism on part of the youth. The presentation will assess the outcomes of his populist narratives and their implications for Pakistan’s political future.
Media and Populism in Pakistan
Ramsha Jahangir is a Pakistani journalist, researcher, and trainer, specializing in technology and human rights. Her work is focused on internet rights, mis/disinformation, online regulation & censorship, and digital society. Jahangir is a recipient of four national journalism awards for ‘in-depth and tenacious’ coverage of internet clampdown and disinformation in Pakistan.
The Land of Pure: Islamic Populism in Pakistan’s Identity Project and the Rise of Radical Islam
Dr Fizza Batool is an academic and policy researcher with a particular interest in Comparative Politics, Comparative Democratization, Peace Studies, and Populism. She is currently an Assistant Professor (Social Sciences) at SZABIST University, Karachi. Previously, she worked for over a decade in the research and development sector where she served in important managerial positions. Her works have been published in some prestigious research journals like South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Pakistan Horizon etc. She also contributes to English dailies in Pakistan and international research magazines such as South Asian Voices. She was one of the 2020 SAV Visiting Fellows at Stimson Center, DC.
Abstract: Pakistan literally means the land of pure. This focus on the purity of the people underlines that religious moralism has overshadowed the state identity since its inception. Pakistan was the first country founded on Islamic nationalism, and the main theme of the political discourse during the Pakistan Movement was the antagonistic relationship between Muslims and Hindus as two separate nations. After the creation of Pakistan, the state under dire pressure of giving one singular identity to its otherwise diverse population, opted to continue pitting the pure Pakistanis against the evil Indians. However, with no clarity on what form or level of religiosity is expected from its people to be declared a pure Muslim, different elected and non-elected governments as well as political parties and movements came up with their own political construct of Pakistani identity, creating an ontological insecurity in the country. In this presentation, I will highlight that this antagonistic and moralist construction of Pakistan’s identity, and the resulting ambiguity, has given space for radical Islamic populism to gain strength in the country. The country leadership critically needs to adopt pluralist discourse and socio-cultural identity construction to counter the wave of radical Islamic movements and parties.
Military and Populism in Pakistan
Dr Raja M. Ali Saleem is an Associate Professor (Public Policy) at the Centre for Public Policy and Governance at Forman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan. He is a former civil servant and has more than 20 years of diverse experience in government and academia. Dr. Saleem’s research focuses on religious nationalism, the relationship between church and state, the politics of Muslim-majority countries, especially Turkey, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, local governments, public financial management, the role of the military in politics, and democratic consolidation. In 2020, Dr. Saleem was a Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford. His first book, State, Nationalism, and Islamization: Historical Analysis of Turkey and Pakistan, was published by Palgrave-Macmillan in 2017.
‘I Am Democracy’: The Appeal of Imran’s Khan’s Populism for Pakistani Women
Dr Afiya Shehrbano Zia (Ph.D. Women and Gender Studies) has held the Frank B Weeks chair as Visiting Assistant Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexualities Studies at Wesleyan University (2021-2022). She has taught at the University of Toronto, Canada, and Habib University in Pakistan. Afiya is author of Faith and Feminism in Pakistan; Religious Agency or Secular Autonomy? (2018, SAP) and two dozen peer-reviewed essays for scholarly journals including, Pious populist political masculinities in Pakistan and India, SAP, 2022.
Abstract: Despite his political conservatism and underachievement, Pakistan’s former sportsman turned Prime Minister, Imran Khan (2018-2022), remains a populist leader. Sympathy and adulation for him has only escalated after his removal from office by a No-Confidence Vote. The military propped him as a paragon of incorruptible honesty but quickly became impatient with their prodigy’s empty rhetoric and defiance that unsettled military hegemony, especially from rank and file.
Paradoxically, Khan denies being fostered by the Deep State but is personally aggrieved over abandonment by its shallow conceits. This moral injury has triggered reactionary and violent protest rallies by his party, Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) comprising of young, mostly urban middle-class, outraged, weeping supporters.
The trope of victimhood is common to all deposed parties but the PTI supporters and trolls weaponise gender, nationalism, and piety with technical alacrity for emotive results. Khan holds blatant misogynist views yet commands a cult-like following of women followers on par with past and current demagogues.
The presentation will focus on images and competitive tropes of this populism which include performances of piety, grief, and forfeiture of feminine desires for the populist; the illusory hope of Pakistani diaspora and the power of the narrative of sovereignty of the Islamic Republic. The civil-military hybrid experiment has failed yet again, leaving in its wake a failing economy and long-term adverse effects on democracy, women, and human rights.
