Interface Between National Ideologies and the Constitution of Pakistan

Abstract

Language of State Constitutions has mainly been studied from generic, linguistic, stylistic, and discursive perspectives, however, analyzing the same from ideological view point hasn’t caught the eye or preference of most studies in general and in Pakistan in particular. The paper, with democratic concerns, concentrates on analyzing the presence of ideologies in the Constitution of Pakistan. It is exploratory in nature and analyzes genre of the Constitution of Pakistan (1973) to find out to what extent the constitution is loaded with ideological concepts and that what are the foci of such ideologies. It also delves into how ideologies are clothed in linguistic manifestation to form national views towards religion, politics, gender, power, education, rights, obligations, defense and various other “fields” and thus bring about socio-political effects. Genre analytical studies have taken a complete new turn after the introduction of elements of criticality and ideology, as in this paper. Precisely, the paper focuses on presence of ideologies in the text of the current Constitution of Pakistan and groups them under “fields of ideologies” which characterizes the constitutional genre under study. The study concludes by drawing attention to strong links between education and constitution which may be utilized to bring positive change in the society. The findings may potentially encourage similar CGA studies on constitutional genres and ideologies, around the globe.

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